Browsing or searching user interfaces and other aspects

ABSTRACT

User interfaces for browsing and/or searching are described. In some embodiments, the metadata of a file includes a field having an indicator to indicate whether a preview of the content of the file is available. If the preview is available, then a plug-in associated with the creator application of the file is executed to present the preview within the icon. Furthermore, if the preview is interactive according to the metadata, then various user interface control may be generated to allow users to manipulate the presentation of the preview. Other embodiments are also described, and computer readable media and apparatuses are also described.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/059,614, filed on Jun. 6, 2008.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern data processing systems, such as general purpose computersystems, allow the users of such systems to create a variety ofdifferent types of data files. For example, a typical user of a dataprocessing system may create text files with a word processing programsuch as Microsoft Word or may create an image file with an imageprocessing program such as Adobe's PhotoShop. Numerous other types offiles are capable of being created or modified, edited, and otherwiseused by one or more users for a typical data processing system. Thelarge number of the different types of files that can be created ormodified can present a challenge to a typical user who is seeking tofind a particular file which has been created.

Modern data processing systems often include a file management systemwhich allows a user to place files in various directories orsubdirectories (e.g. folders) and allows a user to give the file a name.Further, these file management systems often allow a user to find a fileby searching for the file's name, or the date of creation, or the dateof modification, or the type of file. An example of such a filemanagement system is the Finder program which operates on Macintoshcomputers from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Another example of a filemanagement system program is the Windows Explorer program which operateson the Windows operating system from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash. Both the Finder program and the Windows Explorer program include afind command which allows a user to search for files by various criteriaincluding a file name or a date of creation or a date of modification orthe type of file. However, this search capability searches throughinformation which is the same for each file, regardless of the type offile. Thus, for example, the searchable data for a Microsoft Word fileis the same as the searchable data for an Adobe PhotoShop file, and thisdata typically includes the file name, the type of file, the date ofcreation, the date of last modification, the size of the file andcertain other parameters which may be maintained for the file by thefile management system.

Certain presently existing application programs allow a user to maintaindata about a particular file. This data about a particular file may beconsidered metadata because it is data about other data. This metadatafor a particular file may include information about the author of afile, a summary of the document, and various other types of information.A program such as Microsoft Word may automatically create some of thisdata when a user creates a file and the user may add additional data oredit the data by selecting the “property sheet” from a menu selection inMicrosoft Word. The property sheets in Microsoft Word allow a user tocreate metadata for a particular file or document. However, in existingsystems, a user is not able to search for metadata across a variety ofdifferent applications using one search request from the user.Furthermore, existing systems can perform one search for data files, butthis search does not also include searching through metadata for thosefiles.

SUMMARY OF THE DESCRIPTION

Methods for managing data in a data processing system and systems formanaging data are described herein.

A method of managing data in one exemplary embodiment includesdisplaying an icon representing a file in a graphical user interface(GUI), where the icon includes one or more predefined decorations. Thedecorations may be chosen based on the file type, such as slidedecorations for presentations, a foldover for documents, etc. This mayalso be referred to as type conformance. A preview of the content of thefile is presented within the icon without launching an application whichhas created the file (also referred to as the creator application). Thepre-defined decorations on the icon may be maintained on the icon whilethe preview of the content of the file is presented. The format of theicon (e.g., shape of the icon, size of the icon, etc.) may be maintainedas well during presentation of the preview.

In some embodiments, various user interface control are provided toallow users to manipulate the presentation of the preview within theicon. Thus, such preview is also referred to as interactive preview andthe icon displaying the interactive preview are referred to as a dynamicicon. For example, if the file is a document, buttons may be provided toallow users to page through pages of the document within the icon as ifone was turning the pages sequentially. Alternatively, a button may beprovided to allow users to zoom into a portion of the document withinthe icon. Alternatively, a scroll bar may be provided to allow users toscroll up and down the document within the icon. If the file is a video,then a play button may be provided to allow users to initiate playing apreview of the video within the icon. Furthermore, a stop button may beprovided to allow users to stop playing the video. In some embodiments,a status indicator, such as a ring, a bar, etc., may be provided toindicate the portion of the preview of the video played. If the file isa still image, then a thumbnail of the image may be displayed as apreview and one or more buttons may be provided to allow users to zoomin or out of the thumbnail of the image.

According to some aspects of the invention, the GUI in which the icon isdisplayed is associated with a client application, such as a filemanagement application of a hierarchical file system (HFS), such asFinder from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., and Window Explorer fromMicrosoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash. Via the GUI, users may manage files inthe HFS. Alternatively, the GUI in which the icon is displayed isassociated with a file searching application, such as Spotlight fromApple, Inc. The GUI may include a result window of the file searchingapplication. Icons of files found by the file searching application maybe displayed in the result window and previews of contents of the files,if available, are presented within the icons inside the result window.No additional window may be generated to present the preview.

In some embodiments, the metadata of the file includes a field having anindicator to indicate whether a preview of the content of the file isavailable. If the preview is available, then a plug-in associated withthe creator application of the file is executed to present the previewwithin the icon. Furthermore, if the preview is interactive according tothe metadata, then various user interface control may be generated toallow users to manipulate the presentation of the preview.

According to some aspects of the invention, a background process (alsoreferred to as a daemon) may request icon data of an icon from theplug-in in response to a request from the client application. Asmentioned above, the plug-in is associated with a creator application ofthe file. The icon data includes decorations of the icon (which may bechosen based on the file type) and metadata of the file. As mentionedabove, the metadata may include a field having an indicator to indicatewhether a preview of the content of the file is available. After thebackground process receives the icon data from the plug-in, thebackground process forwards the icon data to the client application. Insome embodiments, the client application analyzes the metadata todetermine if a preview of the content of the file is available, and ifso, whether the preview is interactive. If the preview is available andis interactive, then the client application may generate an icon usableto present the preview and execute the plug-in to present the previewwithin the icon. User interface control appropriate for the type ofcontent may be provided to allow users to manipulate the presentation ofthe preview within the icon.

In at least certain embodiments, the icon data from the plug-in furtherincludes badge data and an image (such as a thumbnail). The badge dataincludes additional information on the file, the creator application ofthe file, and/or a third party vendor of the creator application. Forexample, the badge data may include the version of the creatorapplication. Using the badge data, a badge may be generated anddisplayed on the icon. For example, a badge containing a graphic imageto identify a creator application (e.g., a logo of the creatorapplication) and/or the third party vendor (e.g., a trademark of thethird party vendor) may be displayed on an icon of a file created by thecreator application. Such a badge may be referred to as an image badge.Alternatively, a badge containing text of the name of the creatorapplication may be displayed on the icon. Such a badge may be referredto as a text badge.

According to some aspects of the invention, icons representing foldersmay be badged as well. When an icon is created for a folder, it isdetermined if all files within the folder is produced by applicationsfrom a single third party vendor using badge data in icon data of iconsrepresenting the files within the folder. If so, a badge indicative ofthe single third party vendor is generated. Then the badge is displayedon the icon of the folder. The badge may include text, a graphic image,or a combination of both. The icon of the folder may further includedecorations for folders, such as a binder.

In some embodiments, the above operations to create icons, to presentpreviews within the icons, and to create badges for the icons areperformed by a single computing machine, such as a personal computer.Alternatively, the above operations to create icons, to present previewswithin the icons, and to create badges for the icons are performed byvarious computing machines within a system. According to some aspects ofthe invention, a server in the system initiates an instance of a previewgenerator for each client machine in the system. The instance sends atleast one of a preview and a thumbnail of a file to the client machineresponsive to a request for the file from the client machine to allowthe client machine to present the preview. The instance may generate anicon representing the file and execute a plug-in associated with acreator application of the file to present the preview within the iconso that the creator application does not have to be launched.Furthermore, the icon may be cached on the server so that otherinstances of the preview generator may use the same icon.

Other aspects of the present inventions include various data processingsystems which perform these methods and machine readable media whichcause a data processing system to perform various methods describedherein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system, whichmay be a general-purpose computer system and which may operate in any ofthe various methods described herein.

FIG. 2 shows a general example of one exemplary method of one aspect ofthe invention.

FIG. 3A shows an example of the content of the particular type ofmetadata for a particular type of file.

FIG. 3B shows another example of a particular type of metadata foranother particular type of file.

FIG. 4 shows an example of an architecture for managing metadataaccording to one exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing another exemplary method of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a storage format, which utilizes a flat fileformat for metadata according to one exemplary embodiment of theinvention.

FIGS. 7A-7E show a sequence of graphical user interfaces provided by oneexemplary embodiment in order to allow searching of metadata and/orother data in a data processing system.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show two examples of formats for displaying searchresults according to one exemplary embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 shows another exemplary user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows another exemplary user interface of the present invention.

FIGS. 11A-11D show, in sequence, another exemplary user interfaceaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 12A-12D show alternative embodiments of user interfaces accordingto the present invention.

FIGS. 13A and 13B show further alternative embodiments of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, 14C, and 14D show further alternative embodiments ofuser interfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C and 15D show another alternative embodiment of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 16A and 16B show certain aspects of embodiments of user interfacesaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 17 shows an aspect of certain embodiments of user interfacesaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 18A and 18B show further aspects of certain embodiments of userinterfaces according to the present invention.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D, and 19E show further illustrative embodimentsof user interfaces according to the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a flow chart which illustrates another exemplary method ofthe present invention.

FIG. 21 shows a method, according to one exemplary embodiment, ofanother aspect of the present inventions.

FIGS. 22A, 22B and 22C show examples of previews of items found from asearch query, with the previews being capable of being presented withinthe window showing the search results.

FIG. 23 provides an example of one method of generating dynamic iconshaving previews within the dynamic icons.

FIG. 24 illustrates one embodiment of a call diagram to change athumbnail of a file to live preview of the file.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a method of changing athumbnail to live preview.

FIGS. 26A-26D show one embodiment of a dynamic icon.

FIGS. 27A-27E show another embodiment of a dynamic icon.

FIG. 28 shows one embodiment of a method to badge icons.

FIG. 29 shows one embodiment of a method to badge a folder.

FIGS. 30A-30C show some exemplary embodiments of badged icons.

FIG. 31 shows an example of an architecture, which includes at least oneapplication program interface (API), that allows an application, such asa user level application, to obtain a preview of files and other datawithout having to launch another application which created that file orother data.

FIG. 32 illustrates one embodiment of a system in which embodiments ofthe present invention may be implemented.

FIG. 33 illustrates one embodiment of a method for providing a previewgenerator on a server.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The subject invention will be described with reference to numerousdetails set forth below, and the accompanying drawings will illustratethe invention. The following description and drawings are illustrativeof the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention.Numerous specific details are described to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. However, in certain instances,well known or conventional details are not described in order to notunnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.

The present description includes material protected by copyrights, suchas illustrations of graphical user interface images. The owners of thecopyrights, including the assignee of the present invention, herebyreserve their rights, including copyright, in these materials. Thecopyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyoneof the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in thePatent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves allcopyrights whatsoever. Copyright Apple Inc. 2008.

FIG. 1 shows one example of a typical computer system which may be usedwith the present invention. Note that while FIG. 1 illustrates variouscomponents of a computer system, it is not intended to represent anyparticular architecture or manner of interconnecting the components assuch details are not germane to the present invention. It will also beappreciated that personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellulartelephones, media players (e.g. an iPod), devices which combine aspectsor functions of these devices (e.g. a media player combined with a PDAand a cellular telephone in one device), an embedded processing devicewithin another device, network computers, a consumer electronic device,and other data processing systems which have fewer components or perhapsmore components may also be used with or to implement one or moreembodiments of the present invention. The computer system of FIG. 1 may,for example, be a Macintosh computer from Apple Inc.

As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system 101, which is a form of a dataprocessing system, includes a bus 102 which is coupled to amicroprocessor(s) 103 and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 107 and volatile RAM105 and a non-volatile memory 106. The microprocessor 103 may be amicroprocessor from Intel or a G3 or G4 microprocessor from Motorola,Inc. or one or more G5 microprocessors from IBM. The bus 102interconnects these various components together and also interconnectsthese components 103, 107, 105, and 106 to a display controller anddisplay device 104 and to peripheral devices such as input/output (I/O)devices which may be mice, keyboards, modems, network interfaces,printers and other devices which are well known in the art. Typically,the input/output devices 109 are coupled to the system throughinput/output controllers 108. The volatile RAM (Random Access Memory)105 is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which requires powercontinually in order to refresh or maintain the data in the memory. Themass storage 106 is typically a magnetic hard drive or a magneticoptical drive or an optical drive or a DVD RAM or other types of memorysystems which maintain data (e.g. large amounts of data) even afterpower is removed from the system. Typically, the mass storage 106 willalso be a random access memory although this is not required. While FIG.1 shows that the mass storage 106 is a local device coupled directly tothe rest of the components in the data processing system, it will beappreciated that the present invention may utilize a non-volatile memorywhich is remote from the system, such as a network storage device whichis coupled to the data processing system through a network interfacesuch as a modem or Ethernet interface. The bus 102 may include one ormore buses connected to each other through various bridges, controllersand/or adapters as is well known in the art. In one embodiment the I/Ocontroller 108 includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus) adapter forcontrolling USB peripherals and an IEEE 1394 controller for IEEE 1394compliant peripherals.

It will be apparent from this description that aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied, at least in part, in software. That is, thetechniques may be carried out in a computer system or other dataprocessing system in response to its processor, such as amicroprocessor, executing sequences of instructions contained in amemory, such as ROM 107, RAM 105, mass storage 106 or a remote storagedevice. In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used incombination with software instructions to implement the presentinvention. Thus, the techniques are not limited to any specificcombination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particularsource for the instructions executed by the data processing system. Inaddition, throughout this description, various functions and operationsare described as being performed by or caused by software code tosimplify description. However, those skilled in the art will recognizewhat is meant by such expressions is that the functions result fromexecution of the code by a processor, such as the microprocessor 103.

Capturing and Use of Metadata Across a Variety of Application Programs

FIG. 2 shows a generalized example of one embodiment of the presentinvention. In this example, captured metadata is made available to asearching facility, such as a component of the operating system whichallows concurrent searching of all metadata for all applications havingcaptured metadata (and optionally for all non-metadata of the datafiles). The method of FIG. 2 may begin in operation 201 in whichmetadata is captured from a variety of different application programs.This captured metadata is then made available in operation 203 to asearching facility, such as a file management system software forsearching. This searching facility allows, in operation 205, thesearching of metadata across all applications having captured metadata.The method also provides, in operation 207, a user interface of a searchengine and the search results which are obtained by the search engine.There are numerous possible implementations of the method of FIG. 2. Forexample, FIG. 5 shows a specific implementation of one exemplaryembodiment of the method of FIG. 2. Alternative implementations may alsobe used. For example, in an alternative implementation, the metadata maybe provided by each application program to a central source which storesthe metadata for use by searching facilities and which is managed by anoperating system component, which may be, for example, the metadataprocessing software. The user interface provided in operation 207 maytake a variety of different formats, including some of the examplesdescribed below as well as user interfaces which are conventional, priorart user interfaces. The metadata may be stored in a database which maybe any of a variety of formats including a B tree format or, asdescribed below, in a flat file format according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

The method of FIG. 2 may be implemented for programs which do not storeor provide metadata. In this circumstance, a portion of the operatingsystem provides for the capture of the metadata from the variety ofdifferent programs even though the programs have not been designed toprovide or capture metadata. For those programs which do allow a user tocreate metadata for a particular document, certain embodiments of thepresent invention may allow the exporting back of captured metadata backinto data files for applications which maintain metadata about theirdata files.

The method of FIG. 2 allows information about a variety of differentfiles created by a variety of different application programs to beaccessible by a system wide searching facility, which is similar to theway in which prior art versions of the Finder or Windows Explorer cansearch for file names, dates of creation, etc. across a variety ofdifferent application programs. Thus, the metadata for a variety ofdifferent files created by a variety of different application programscan be accessed through an extension of an operating system, and anexample of such an extension is shown in FIG. 4 as a metadata processingsoftware which interacts with other components of the system and will bedescribed further below.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show two different metadata formats for two differenttypes of data files. Note that there may be no overlap in any of thefields; in other words, no field in one type of metadata is the same asany field in the other type of metadata. Metadata format 301 may be usedfor an image file such as a JPEG image file. This metadata may includeinformation such as the image's width, the image's height, the image'scolor space, the number of bits per pixel, the ISO setting, the flashsetting, the F/stop of the camera, the brand name of the camera whichtook the image, user-added keywords and other fields, such as a fieldwhich uniquely identifies the particular file, which identification ispersistent through modifications of the file. Metadata format 331 shownin FIG. 3B may be used for a music file such as an MP3 music file. Thedata in this metadata format may include an identification of theartist, the genre of the music, the name of the album, song names in thealbum or the song name of the particular file, song play times or thesong play time of a particular song and other fields, such as apersistent file ID number which identifies the particular MP3 file fromwhich the metadata was captured. Other types of fields may also be used.The following chart shows examples of the various fields which may beused in metadata for various types of files.

Mul- User Copied Item Parent in ti- set- Get- with App name hierarchyAttribute name Description/Notes CFType value Localized table table copyviewable Item n/a Authors Who created or CFString Yes No Yes Yes YesAddress contributed to the Book contents of this item Comment A freeform text CFString No No Yes Yes Yes comment ContentType This is thetype that is CFString No ? No Yes Yes determined by UTI ContentTypesThis is the inheritance of CFString Yes ? No Yes Yes the UTI systemCreatedDate When was this item CFDate No No No Yes Yes createdDisplayName The name of the item as CFString No Yes Yes Yes Yes Finder(or the user would like to Launch read it. Very well may Services) bethe file name, but it may also be the subject of an e-mail message orthe full name of a person, for example. Keywords This is a list wordsset CFString Yes System- Yes Yes Ask by the user to identify providedarbitrary sets of keywords organization. The scope (if any) isdetermined by the user and can be flexibly used for any kind oforganization. For example, Family, Hawaii, Project X, etc. Contact Alist of contacts that CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask Address Keywords areassociated with this Book document, beyond what is captured as Author.This may be a person who's in the picture or a document about a personor contact (performance review, contract) ModifiedDate When this itemwas last CFDate No No No Yes modified Rating A relative rating (0 to 5CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes value) on how important a particular item is toyou, whether it's a person, file or message RelatedTos A list of otheritems that CFString Yes No Yes Yes are arbitrarily grouped together.TextContent An indexed version of any CFString No No No Yes content textUsedDates Which days was the CFDate Yes No No Yes documentopened/viewed/played Content/ Item Copyright Specifies the owner of thisCFString No No Yes Yes Data content, i.e. Copyright Apple Inc.CreatorApp Keeps track of the CFString No ? No Yes application that wasused to create this document (if it's known). Languages The languagesthat this CFString Yes Yes Yes Yes document is composed in (for eithertext or audio- based media) ParentalControl A field that is used toCFString No ? Yes Yes determine whether this is kid-friendly content ornot Publishers The name or a person or CFString Yes No Yes Yes Addressorganization that published Book this content. PublishedDate Theoriginal date that this CFDate No No Yes Yes content was published (ifit was), independent of created date. Reviewers A list of contacts whoCFString Yes No Yes Yes Address have reviewed the contents Book of thisfile. This would have to be set explicitly by an application. Image DataReviewStatus Free form text that used CFString No ? Yes Yes to specifywhere the document is in any arbitrary review process TimeEdited Totaltime spent editing CFDate No No No Yes document WhereTos Where did thisgo to, eg. CFString Yes System- ? Yes CD, printed, backedup providedwords only (if any) WhereFroms Where did this come CFString Yes System-? Yes from, e.g. camera, email, provided web download, CD words only (ifany) BitsPerSample What is the bit depth of CFNumber No Yes the image(8-bit, 16-bit, etc.) ColorSpace What color space model CFString No YesColorSync is this document Utility? following ImageHeight The height ofthe image CFNumber No Yes in pixels ImageWidth The width of the imageCFNumber No Yes in pixels ProfileName The name of the color CFString NoYes ColorSync profile used with for Utility? image ResolutionWidthResolution width of this CFNumber No Yes image (i.e. dpi from a scanner)ResolutionHeight Resolution height of this CFNumber No Yes image (i.e.dpi from a scanner) LayerNames For image formats that CFString Yes Yescontain “named” layers (e.g. Photoshop files) Aperture The f-stop ratingof the CFNumber No Yes camera when the image was taken CameraMake Themake of the camera CFString No Yes Yes that was used to acquire thisimage (e.g. Nikon) CameraModel The model of the camera CFString No YesYes used to acquire this image (Coolpix 5700) DateTimeOriginal Date/timethe picture CFDate No Yes was taken ExposureMode Mode that was used forCFString No Yes the exposure ExposureTime Time that the lens was CFDateNo Yes exposed while taking the picture Flash This attribute is CFNumberNo Yes overloaded with information about red- eye reduction. This is nota binary value GPS Raw value received CFString No Yes from GPS deviceassociated with photo acquisition. It hasn't necessarily been translatedto a user- understandable location. ISOSpeed The ISO speed the CFNumberNo Yes camera was set to when the image was acquired Orientation Theorientation of the CFString No Yes camera when the image was acquiredWhiteBalance The white balance CFNumber No Yes setting of the camerawhen the picture was taken EXIFversion The version of EXIF CFString NoYes that was used to generate the metadata for the imageAcquisitionSources The name or type of CFString Yes Yes device that usedto acquire the media Time- Data Codecs The codecs used to CFString YesYes based encode/decode the media DeliveryType FastStart or RTSPCFString No Yes Duration The length of time that CFNumber No Yes themedia lasts Streamable Whether the content is CFBoolean No Yes preparedfor purposes of streaming TotalBitRate The total bit rate (audioCFNumber No Yes & video combined) of the media. AudioBitRate The audiobit rate of the CFNumber No Yes media AspectRatio The aspect ratio ofthe CFString No Yes video of the media ColorSpace The color space modelCFString No Yes used for the video aspect of the media FrameHeight Theframe height in CFNumber No Yes pixels of the video in the mediaFrameWidth The frame width in CFNumber No Yes pixels of the video in themedia ProfileName The name of the color CFString No Yes profile used onthe video portion of the media VideoBitRate The bit rate of the videoCFNumber No Yes aspect of the media Text Data Subject The subject of thetext. CFString No Yes This could be metadata that's supplied with thetext or something automatically generated with technologies like VTWINPageCount The number of printable CFNumber No Yes pages of the documentLineCount The number of lines in CFNumber No Yes the document WordCountThe number of words in CFNumber No Yes the document URL The URL thatwill get CFString No Yes you to this document (or at least did at onetime). Relevant for saved HTML documents, bookmarks, RSS feeds, etc.PageTitle The title of a web page. CFString No Yes Relevant to HTML orbookmark documents Google Structure of where this CFString No YesHierarchy page can be found in the Google hierarchy. Relevant to HTML orbookmark documents Compound Data <Abstract> There are no specific n/an/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a document attributes assigned to this item. Thisis to catch all app-specific file formats that fall within Data, butdon't fit into any of the other types. Typically these documents havemultiple types of media embedded within them. (e.g. P PDF CompoundNumberOfPages The number of printable CFNumber No Yes document pages inthe document PageSize The size of the page CFNumber No No Yes stored aspoints PDFTitle PDF-specific title CFString No ? Yes metadata for thedocument PDFAuthor PDF-specific author CFString No ? Yes Addressmetadata for the Book document PDFSubject PDF-specific subject CFStringNo ? Yes metadata for the document PDFKeywords PDF-specific keywordsCFString Yes ? Yes metadata for the document PDFCreated PDF-specificcreated CFDate No ? Yes metadata for the document PDFModifiedPDF-specific modified CFDate No ? Yes metadata for the documentPDFVersion PDF-specific version CFString No ? Yes metadata for thedocument SecurityMethod Method by which this CFString No Yes document iskept secure Presentation Compound SlideTitles A collection of the titlesCFString Yes Yes (Keynote) document on slides SlideCount The number ofslides CFString No Yes SpeakerNotesContent The content of all theCFString ? Yes speaker notes from all of the slides together ApplicationItem Categories The kind of application CFString Yes Yes this is:productivity, games, utility, graphics, etc. A set list that MessageItem Recipients Maps to To and Cc: CFString Yes Yes Address addresses ina mail Book message. Priority The priority of the CFString No Yesmessage as set by the sender AttachmentNames The list of filenames thatCFString Yes Yes represent attachments in a particular message (shouldbe actionable within the Finder) Authors maps to From address inCFString Yes No Yes Yes Yes Address mail message Book Comment Notapplicable to Mail CFString No No Yes Yes Yes right now (should weconsider?) ContentType CFString No No Yes Yes ContentTypes CFString YesNo Yes Yes CreatedDate When was this message CFDate No No No Yes Yes wassent or received DisplayName Subject of the message CFString No Yes YesYes Yes Keywords There will be a way to CFString Yes System- Yes Yes Askset keywords within provided Mail keywords (if any) Contact Could bewhere CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask Address Keywords recipients are heldBook ModifiedDate Not applicable CFDate No No No Yes Rating A relativerating (0 to 5 CFNumber No n/a Yes Yes stars) on how important aparticular message is to you (separate from a message's Priority)RelatedTos Potentially threaded CFString Yes No Yes Yes messages couldbe put into this category TextContent An indexed version of CFString NoNo No Yes the mail message UsedDates The day/time in which CFDate Yes NoNo Yes the mail message was viewed/read Contact Item Company The companythat this CFString No Yes Address contact is an employee Book of E-mailsA list of e-mail CFString Yes Yes Mail addresses that this contact hasIMs A list of instant message CFString Yes Yes iChat handles thiscontact has Phones A list of phone numbers CFString Yes that relate tothis contact Addresses A list of physical CFString Yes addresses thatrelate to this person Authors the name of the owner of CFString Yes NoYes Yes Yes Address the Address Book Book (current user name) CommentCFString No No Yes Yes Yes ContentType CFString No No Yes YesContentTypes CFString Yes No Yes Yes CreatedDate date the user enteredthis CFDate No No No Yes Yes into his AddressBook (either through importor direct entry) DisplayName Composite name of CFString No Yes Yes YesYes contact (First Name, Last Name) Keywords There will be a way toCFString Yes System- Yes Yes Ask set keywords within provided AddressBook keywords (if any) Contact CFString Yes No Yes Yes Ask AddressKeywords Book ModifiedDate Last time this contact CFDate No No No Yesentry was modified Rating A relative rating (0 to 5 CFNumber No n/a YesYes stars) on how important a particular contact is to you (separatefrom a message's Priority) RelatedTos (potentially could be CFString YesNo Yes Yes used to associate people from the same company or family)TextContent An indexed version of CFString No No No Yes the Notessection UsedDates The day/time in which CFDate Yes No No Yes the contactentry was viewed in Address Book Meeting Item Body text, rich text orCFString No Yes (TBD) document that represents the full content of theevent Description text describing the event CFString No Yes EventTimestime/date the event starts CFDate Yes Yes Duration The length of timethat CFNumber No Yes the meeting lasts Invitees The list of people whoCFString Yes Yes Address are invited to the Book meeting Location Thename of the location CFString No Yes where the meeting is taking place

One particular field which may be useful in the various metadata formatswould be a field which includes an identifier of a plug-in or othersoftware element which may be used to capture metadata from a data fileand/or export metadata back to the creator application. Another fieldwhich may be useful in the various metadata formats would be a fieldwhich includes an indicator on whether a preview of the content of afile is available. In some embodiments, the field may further includeanother indicator to tell whether the preview, if available, isinteractive.

Various different software architectures may be used to implement thefunctions and operations described herein. The following discussionprovides one example of such an architecture, but it will be understoodthat alternative architectures may also be employed to achieve the sameor similar results. The software architecture shown in FIG. 4 is anexample which is based upon the Macintosh operating system. Thearchitecture 400 includes a metadata processing software 401 and anoperating system (OS) kernel 403 which is operatively coupled to themetadata processing software 401 for a notification mechanism which isdescribed below. The metadata processing software 401 is also coupled toother software programs such as a file system graphical user interfacesoftware 405 (which may be the Finder), an email software 407, and otherapplications 409. These applications are coupled to the metadataprocessing software 401 through client application program interface 411which provide a method for transferring data and commands between themetadata processing software 401 and the software 405, 407, and 409.These commands and data may include search parameters specified by auser as well as commands to perform searches from the user, whichparameters and commands are passed to the metadata processing software401 through the interface 411. The metadata processing software 401 isalso coupled to a collection of importers 413 which extract data fromvarious applications. In particular, in one exemplary embodiment, a textimporter is used to extract text and other information from wordprocessing or text processing files created by word processing programssuch as Microsoft Word, etc. This extracted information is the metadatafor a particular file. Other types of importers extract metadata fromother types of files, such as image files or music files. In thisparticular embodiment, a particular importer is selected based upon thetype of file which has been created and modified by an applicationprogram. For example, if the data file was created by PhotoShop, then animage importer for PhotoShop may be used to input the metadata from aPhotoShop data file into the metadata database 415 through the metadataprocessing software 401. On the other hand, if the data file is a wordprocessing document, then an importer designed to extract metadata froma word processing document is called upon to extract the metadata fromthe word processing data file and place it into the metadata database415 through the metadata processing software 401. Typically, a pluralityof different importers may be required in order to handle the pluralityof different application programs which are used in a typical computersystem. The importers 413 may optionally include a plurality ofexporters which are capable of exporting the extracted metadata forparticular types of data files back to property sheets or other datacomponents maintained by certain application programs. For example,certain application programs may maintain some metadata for each datafile created by the program, but this metadata is only a subset of themetadata extracted by an importer from this type of data file. In thisinstance, the exporter may export back additional metadata or may simplyinsert metadata into blank fields of metadata maintained by theapplication program.

The software architecture 400 also includes a file system directory 417for the metadata. This file system directory keeps track of therelationship between the data files and their metadata and keeps trackof the location of the metadata object (e.g. a metadata file whichcorresponds to the data file from which it was extracted) created byeach importer. In one exemplary embodiment, the metadata database ismaintained as a flat file format as described below, and the file systemdirectory 417 maintains this flat file format. One advantage of a flatfile format is that the data is laid out on a storage device as a stringof data without references between fields from one metadata file(corresponding to a particular data file) to another metadata file(corresponding to another data file). This arrangement of data willoften result in faster retrieval of information from the metadatadatabase 415.

The software architecture 400 of FIG. 4 also includes find by contentsoftware 419 which is operatively coupled to a database 421 whichincludes an index of files. The index of files represents at least asubset of the data files in a storage device and may include all of thedata files in a particular storage device (or several storage devices),such as the main hard drive of a computer system. The index of files maybe a conventional indexed representation of the content of eachdocument. The find by content software 419 searches for words in thatcontent by searching through the database 421 to see if a particularword exists in any of the data files which have been indexed. The findby content software functionality is available through the metadataprocessing software 401 which provides the advantage to the user thatthe user can search concurrently both the index of files in the database421 (for the content within a file) as well as the metadata for thevarious data files being searched. The software architecture shown inFIG. 4 may be used to perform the method shown in FIG. 5 or alternativearchitectures may be used to perform the method of FIG. 5.

The method of FIG. 5 may begin in operation 501 in which a notificationof a change for a file is received. This notification may come from theOS kernel 403 which notifies the metadata processing software 401 that afile has been changed. This notification may come from sniffer softwareelements which detect new or modified files and deletion of files. Thischange may be the creation of a new file or the modification of anexisting file or the deletion of an existing file. The deletion of anexisting file causes a special case of the processing method of FIG. 5and is not shown in FIG. 5. In the case of a deletion, the metadataprocessing software 401, through the use of the file system directory417, deletes the metadata file in the metadata database 415 whichcorresponds to the deleted file. The other types of operations, such asthe creation of a new file or the modification of an existing file,causes the processing to proceed from operation 501 to operation 503 inwhich the type of file which is the subject of the notification isdetermined. The file may be an Acrobat PDF file or an RTF wordprocessing file or a JPEG image file, etc. In any case, the type of thefile is determined in operation 503. This may be performed by receivingfrom the OS kernel 403 the type of file along with the notification orthe metadata processing software 401 may request an identification ofthe type of file from the file system graphical user interface software405 or similar software which maintains information about the data file,such as the creator application or parent application of the data file.It will be understood that in one exemplary embodiment, the file systemgraphical user interface software 405 is the Finder program whichoperates on the Macintosh operating system. In alternative embodiments,the file system graphical user interface system may be Windows Explorerwhich operates on Microsoft's Windows operating system. After the typeof file has been determined in operation 503, the appropriate capturesoftware (e.g. one of the importers 413) is activated for the determinedfile type. The importers may be a plug-in for the particular applicationwhich created the type of file about which notification is received inoperation 501. Once activated, the importer or capture software importsthe appropriate metadata (for the particular file type) into themetadata database, such as metadata database 415 as shown in operation507. Then in operation 509, the metadata is stored in the database. Inone exemplary embodiment, it may be stored in a flat file format. Thenin operation 511, the metadata processing software 401 receives searchparameter inputs and performs a search of the metadata database (andoptionally also causes a search of non-metadata sources such as theindex of files 421) and causes the results of the search to be displayedin a user interface. This may be performed by exchanging informationbetween one of the applications, such as the software 405 or thesoftware 407 or the other applications 409 and the metadata processingsoftware 401 through the interface 411. For example, the file systemsoftware 405 may present a graphical user interface, allowing a user toinput search parameters and allowing the user to cause a search to beperformed. This information is conveyed through the interface 411 to themetadata processing software 401 which causes a search through themetadata database 415 and also may cause a search through the database421 of the indexed files in order to search for content within each datafile which has been indexed. The results from these searches areprovided by the metadata processing software 401 to the requestingapplication which, in the example given here, was the software 405, butit will be appreciated that other components of software, such as theemail software 407, may be used to receive the search inputs and toprovide a display of the search results. Various examples of the userinterface for inputting search requests and for displaying searchresults are described herein and shown in the accompanying drawings.

It will be appreciated that the notification, if done through the OSkernel, is a global, system wide notification process such that changesto any file will cause a notification to be sent to the metadataprocessing software. It will also be appreciated that in alternativeembodiments, each application program may itself generate the necessarymetadata and provide the metadata directly to a metadata databasewithout the requirement of a notification from an operating systemkernel or from the intervention of importers, such as the importers 413.Alternatively, rather than using OS kernel notifications, an embodimentmay use software calls from each application to a metadata processingsoftware which receives these calls and then imports the metadata fromeach file in response to the call.

As noted above, the metadata database 415 may be stored in a flat fileformat in order to improve the speed of retrieval of information in mostcircumstances. The flat file format may be considered to be a non-Btree, non-hash tree format in which data is not attempted to beorganized but is rather stored as a stream of data. Each metadata objector metadata file will itself contain fields, such as the fields shown inthe examples of FIGS. 3A and 3B. However, there will typically be norelationship or reference or pointer from one field in one metadata fileto the corresponding field (or another field) in the next metadata fileor in another metadata file of the same file type. FIG. 6 shows anexample of the layout in a flat file format of metadata. The format 601includes a plurality of metadata files for a corresponding plurality ofdata files. As shown in FIG. 6, metadata file 603 is metadata from file1 of application A and may be referred to as metadata file A1.Similarly, metadata file 605 is metadata from file 1 of application Band may be referred to as metadata file B1. Each of these metadata filestypically would include fields which are not linked to other fields andwhich do not contain references or pointers to other fields in othermetadata files. It can be seen from FIG. 6 that the metadata database ofFIG. 6 includes metadata files from a plurality of differentapplications (applications A, B, and C) and different files created byeach of those applications. Metadata files 607, 609, 611, and 617 areadditional metadata files created by applications A, B, and C as shownin FIG. 6.

A flexible query language may be used to search the metadata database inthe same way that such query languages are used to search otherdatabases. The data within each metadata file may be packed or evencompressed if desirable. As noted above, each metadata file, in certainembodiments, will include a persistent identifier which uniquelyidentifies its corresponding data file. This identifier remains the sameeven if the name of the file is changed or the file is modified. Thisallows for the persistent association between the particular data fileand its metadata.

User Interface Aspects

Various different examples of user interfaces for inputting searchparameters and for displaying search results are provided herein. Itwill be understood that some features from certain embodiments may bemixed with other embodiments such that hybrid embodiments may resultfrom these combinations. It will be appreciated that certain featuresmay be removed from each of these embodiments and still provide adequatefunctionality in many instances.

FIG. 7A shows a graphical user interface which is a window which may bedisplayed on a display device which is coupled to a data processingsystem such as a computer system. The window 701 includes a side barhaving two regions 703A, which is a user-configurable region, and 703B,which is a region which is specified by the data processing system.Further details in connection with these side bar regions may be foundin co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/873,661 filed Jun. 21,2004, and entitled “Methods and Apparatuses for Operating a DataProcessing System,” by inventors Donald Lindsay and Bas Ording. Thewindow 701 also includes a display region 705 which in this casedisplays the results of searches requested by the user. The window 701also includes a search parameter menu bar 707 which includesconfigurable pull down menus 713, 715, and 717. The window 701 alsoincludes a text entry region 709 which allows a user to enter text aspart of the search query or search parameters. The button 711 may be astart search button which a user activates in order to start a searchbased upon the selected search parameters. Alternatively, the system mayperform a search as soon as it receives any search parameter inputs orsearch queries from the user rather than waiting for a command to beginthe search. The window 701 also includes a title bar 729 which may beused in conjunction with a cursor control device to move, in aconventional manner, the window around a desktop which is displayed on adisplay device. The window 701 also includes a close button 734, aminimize button 735, and a resize button 736 which may be used to closeor minimize or resize, respectively, the window. The window 701 alsoincludes a resizing control 731 which allows a user to modify the sizeof the window on a display device. The window 701 further includes aback button 732 and a forward button 733 which function in a mannerwhich is similar to the back and forward buttons on a web browser, suchas Internet Explorer or Safari. The window 701 also includes viewcontrols which include three buttons for selecting three different typesof views of the content within the display region 705. When the contentsfound in a search exceed the available display area of a display region705, scroll controls, such as scroll controls 721, 722, and 723, appearwithin the window 701. These may be used in a conventional manner, forexample, by dragging the scroll bar 721 within the scroll region 721Ausing conventional graphical user interface techniques.

The combination of text entry region 709 and the search parameter menubar allow a user to specify a search query or search parameters. Each ofthe configurable pull down menus presents a user with a list of optionsto select from when the user activates the pull down menu. As shown inFIG. 7A, the user has already made a selection from the configurablepull down menu 713 to specify the location of the search, which in thiscase specifies that the search will occur on the local disks of thecomputer systems. Configurable pull down menu 715 has also been used bythe user to specify the kind of document which is to be searched for,which in this case is an image document as indicated by the configurablepull down menu 715 which indicates “images” as the selectedconfiguration of this menu and hence the search parameter which itspecifies. The configurable pull down menu 717, as shown in FIG. 7A,represents an add search parameter pull down menu. This add searchparameter pull down menu allows the user to add additional criteria tothe search query to further limit the search results. In the embodimentshown in FIG. 7A, each of the search parameters is logically ANDed in aBoolean manner. Thus the current search parameter specified by the userin the state shown in FIG. 7A searches all local disks for all images,and the user is in the middle of the process of selecting another searchcriteria by having selected the add search criteria pull down menu 717,resulting in the display of the pull down menu 719, which has aplurality of options which may be selected by the user.

FIG. 7B shows the window 701 after the user has caused the selection ofthe time option within pull down menu 719, thereby causing the displayof a submenu 719A which includes a list of possible times which the usermay select from. Thus it appears that the user wants to limit the searchto all images on all local disks within a certain period of time whichis to be specified by making a selection within the submenu 719A.

FIG. 7C shows the window 701 on the display of a data processing systemafter the user has selected a particular option (in this case “pastweek”) from the submenu 719A. If the user accepts this selection, thenthe display shown in FIG. 7D results in which the configurable pull downmenu 718 is displayed showing that the user has selected as part of thesearch criteria files that have been created or modified in the pastweek. It can be seen from FIG. 7D that the user can change theparticular time selected from this pull down menu 718 by selectinganother time period within the pull down menu 718A shown in FIG. 7D.Note that the configurable pull down menu 717, which represents an addsearch parameter menu, has now moved to the right of the configurablepull down menu 718. The user may add further search parameters bypressing or otherwise activating the configurable pull down menu 717from the search parameter menu bar 707. If the user decides that thepast week is the proper search criteria in the time category, then theuser may release the pull down menu 718A from being displayed in avariety of different ways (e.g. the user may release the mouse buttonwhich was being depressed to keep the pull down menu 718A on thedisplay). Upon releasing or otherwise dismissing the pull down menu718A, the resulting window 701 shown in FIG. 7E then appears. There areseveral aspects of this user interface shown in FIG. 7A-7E which areworthy of being noted. The search parameters or search query isspecified within the same window as the display of the search results.This allows the user to look at a single location or window tounderstand the search parameters and how they affected the displayedsearch results, and may make it easier for a user to alter or improvethe search parameters in order to find one or more files. Theconfigurable pull down menus, such as the add search parameter pull downmenu, includes hierarchical pull down menus. An example of this is shownin FIG. 7B in which the selection of the time criteria from the pulldown menu 717 results in the display of another menu, in this case asubmenu 719A which may be selected from by the user. This allows for acompact presentation of the various search parameters while keeping theinitial complexity (e.g. without submenus being displayed) at a lowerlevel. Another useful aspect of the user interface shown in FIG. 7A-7Eis the ability to reconfigure pull down menus which have previously beenconfigured. Thus, for example, the configurable pull down menu 713currently specifies the location of the search (in this case, all localdisks), however, this may be modified by selecting the pull down regionassociated with the configurable pull down menu 713, causing the displayof a menu of options indicating alternative locations which may beselected by the user. This can also be seen in FIG. 7D in which the pastweek option has been selected by the user (as indicated by “past week”being in the search parameter menu bar 707), but a menu of options shownin the pull down menu 718A allows the user to change the selected timefrom the “past week” to some other time criteria. Another useful aspectof this user interface is the ability to continue adding various searchcriteria by using the add search criteria pull down menu 717 andselecting a new criteria.

It will also be appreciated that the various options in the pull downmenus may depend upon the fields within a particular type of metadatafile. For example, the selection of “images” to be searched may causethe various fields present in the metadata for an image type file toappear in one or more pull down menus, allowing the user to searchwithin one or more of those fields for that particular type of file.Other fields which do not apply to “images” types of files may notappear in these menus in order reduce the complexity of the menus and toprevent user confusion.

Another feature of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 7A-7E. Inparticular, the side bar region 703A, which is the user-configurableportion of the side bar, includes a representation of a folder 725 whichrepresents the search results obtained from a particular search, whichsearch results may be static or they may be dynamic in that, in certaininstances, the search can be performed again to obtain results based onthe current files in the system. The folder 725 in the example shown inFIGS. 7A-7E represents a search on a local disk for all images done onDecember 10. By selecting this folder in the side bar region 703A, theuser may cause the display in the display region 705 of the results ofthat search. In this way, a user may retrieve a search resultautomatically by saving the search result into the side bar region 703A.One mechanism for causing a search result or a search query to be savedinto the side bar region 703A is to select the add folder button 727which appears in the bottom portion of the window 701. By selecting thisbutton, the current search result or search query is saved as a list offiles and other objects retrieved in the current search result. In thecase where the search query is saved for later use rather than thesaving of a search result, then the current search query is saved forre-use at a later time in order to find files which match the searchquery at that later time. The user may select between these twofunctionalities (saving a search result or saving a search query) by theselection of a command which is not shown.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show another aspect of a user interface feature whichmay be used with certain embodiments of the present invention. Thewindow 801 of FIG. 8A represents a display of the search results whichmay be obtained as a result of using one of the various differentembodiments of the present invention. The search results are separatedinto categories which are separated by headers 805, 807, 809, and 811which in this case represent periods of time. This particularsegmentation with headers was selected by the user's selecting theheading “date modified” using the date modified button 803 at the top ofthe window 801. An alternative selection of the kind category byselecting the button 802 at the top of the window 801A shown in FIG. 8Bresults in a different formatting of the search results which are nowcategorized by headers which indicate the types of files which wereretrieved in the search and are separated by the headings 815, 817, 819,and 821 as shown in FIG. 8B. The use of these headings in the searchresults display allows the user to quickly scan through the searchresults in order to find the file.

FIG. 9 shows another aspect of the present invention that is illustratedas part of the window 901 shown in FIG. 9. This window includes adisplay region 905 which shows the results of the search and the windowalso includes two side bar regions 903A and 903B, where the side barregion 903A is the user-configurable portion and the side bar region903B is the system controlled portion. A folder add button 927 may beselected by the user to cause the addition of a search result or asearch query to be added to the user-configurable portion of the sidebar. The window 901 also includes conventional window controls such as atitle bar or region 929 which may be used to move the window around adisplay and view select buttons 937 and maximize, minimize and resizebuttons 934, 935, and 936 respectively. The window 901 shows aparticular manner in which the results of a text-based search may bedisplayed. A text entry region 909 is used to enter text for searching.This text may be used to search through the metadata files or theindexed files or a combination of both. The display region 905 shows theresults of a search for text and includes at least two columns, 917 and919, which provide the name of the file that was found and the basis forthe match. As shown in column 919, the basis for the match may be theauthor field or a file name or a key word or comments or other datafields contained in metadata that was searched. The column 921 shows thetext that was found which matches the search parameter typed into thetext entry field 909. Another column 911 provides additional informationwith respect to the search results. In particular, this column includesthe number of matches for each particular type of category or field aswell as the total number of matches indicated in the entry 913. Thus,for example, the total number of matches found for the comments field isonly 1, while other fields have a higher number of matches.

FIG. 10 shows certain other aspects of some embodiments of the presentinvention. Window 1001 is another search result window which includesvarious fields and menus for a user to select various search parametersor form a search query. The window 1001 includes a display region 1005which may be used to display the results of a search and auser-configurable side bar portion 1003A and a system specified side barportion 1003B. In addition, the window 1001 includes conventionalscrolling controls such as controls 1021 and 1022 and 1021A. The windowfurther includes conventional controls such as a title bar 1029 whichmay be used to move the window and view control buttons 1037 andmaximize, minimize, and resize buttons 1034, 1035, and 1036. A startsearch button 1015 is near a text entry region 1009. A first searchparameter menu bar 1007 is displayed adjacent to a second searchparameter bar 1011. The first search parameter search bar 1007 allows auser to specify the location for a particular search while two menu pulldown controls in the second search parameter menu bar 1011 allow theuser to specify the type of file using the pull down menu 1012 and thetime the file was created or last modified using the menu 1013.

The window 1001 includes an additional feature which may be very usefulwhile analyzing a search result. A user may select individual files fromwithin the display region 1005 and associate them together as onecollection. Each file may be individually marked using a specificcommand (e.g. pressing the right button on a mouse and selecting acommand from a menu which appears on the screen, which command may be“add selection to current group”) or similar such commands. Byindividually selecting such files or by selecting a group of files atonce, the user may associate this group of files into a selected groupor a “marked” group and this association may be used to perform a commonaction on all of the files in the group (e.g. print each file or vieweach file in a viewer window or move each file to a new or existingfolder, etc.). A representation of this marked group appears as a folderin the user-configurable portion 1003A. An example of such a folder isthe folder 1020 shown in the user-configurable portion 1003A. Byselecting this folder (e.g. by positioning a cursor over the folder 1020and pressing and releasing a mouse button or by pressing another button)the user, as a result of this selection, will cause the display withinthe display region 1005 of the files which have been grouped together ormarked. Alternatively, a separate window may appear showing only theitems which have been marked or grouped. This association or groupingmay be merely temporary or it may be made permanent by retaining a listof all the files which have been grouped and by keeping a folder 1020 orother representations of the grouping within the user-configurable sidebar, such as the side bar 1003A. Certain embodiments may allow multiple,different groupings to exist at the same time, and each of thesegroupings or associations may be merely temporary (e.g. they exist onlywhile the search results window is displayed), or they may be madepermanent by retaining a list of all the files which have been groupedwithin each separate group. It will be appreciated that the files withineach group may have been created from different applications. As notedabove, one of the groupings may be selected and then a user may select acommand which performs a common action (e.g. print or view or move ordelete) on all of the files within the selected group.

FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, and 11D show an alternative user interface forallowing a user to input search queries or search parameters. The userinterface shown in these figures appears within the window 1101 whichincludes a user-configurable side bar region 1103A and a systemspecified side bar region 1103B. The window 1101 also includestraditional window controls such as a window resizing control 1131 whichmay be dragged in a conventional graphical user interface manner toresize the window, and the window further includes scrolling controlssuch as controls 1121, 1122, and 1123. The scrolling control 1121 may,for example, be dragged within the scrolling region 1121A or a scrollwheel on a mouse or other input device may be used to cause scrollingwithin a display region 1105. Further, traditional window controlsinclude the title bar 1129 which may be used to move the window around adesktop which is displayed on a display device of a computer system andthe window also includes view buttons 1137 as well as close, minimize,and resize buttons 1134, 1135 and 1136. A back and forward button, suchas the back button 1132, are also provided to allow the user to moveback and forth in a manner which is similar to the back and forthcommands in a web browser. The window 1101 includes a search parametermenu bar 1111 which includes a “search by” pull down menu 1112 and a“sort by” pull down menu 1114. The “search by” pull down menu 1112allows a user to specify the particular search parameter by selectingfrom the options which appear in the pull down menu once it is activatedas shown in FIG. 11B. In particular, the pull down menu 1113 shows oneexample of a pull down menu when the “search by” pull down menu 1112 hasbeen activated. The “sort by” pull down menu 1114 allows a user tospecify how the search results are displayed within a display region1105. In the example shown in FIGS. 11A-11D a user has used the “sortby” pull down menu 1114 to select the “date viewed” criteria to sort thesearch results by. It should also be noted that the user may change thetype of view of the search results by selecting one of the three viewbuttons 1137. For example, a user may select an icon view, which is thecurrently selected button among the view buttons 1137, or the user mayselect a list view or a column view.

FIG. 11B shows the result of the user's activation of a “search by” pulldown menu 1112 which causes the display of the menu 1113 which includesa plurality of options from which the user may choose to perform asearch by. It will be appreciated that there are a number of differentways for a user to activate the “search by” pull down menu 1112. One wayincludes the use of a cursor, such as a pointer on a display which iscontrolled by a cursor control device, such as a mouse. The cursor ispositioned over the region associated with the “search by” menu title(which is the portion within the search parameter menu bar 1111 whichcontains the words “search by”) and then the user indicates theselection of the menu title by pressing a button, such as a mouse'sbutton, to cause the pull down menu to appear, which in this case is themenu 1113 shown in FIG. 11B. At this point, the user may continue tomove the cursor to point to a particular option within the menu, such asthe “time” option. This may result in the display of a submenu to theleft or to the right of the menu 1113. This submenu may be similar tothe submenu 719A or to the menu 1214 shown in FIG. 12A. If the “kind”option is selected in the menu 1113, the submenu may include a genericlist of the different kinds of documents, such as images, photos,movies, text, music, PDF documents, email documents, etc. or the listmay include references to specific program names such as PhotoShop,Director, Excel, Word, etc. or it may include a combination of genericnames and specific names. FIG. 11C shows the result of the user havingselected PhotoShop type of documents from a submenu of the “kind” optionshown in menu 1113. This results in the display of the search parametermenu bar 1111A shown in FIG. 11C which includes a highlighted selection1111B which indicates that the PhotoShop type of documents will besearched for. The search parameter menu bar 1111 appears below thesearch parameter menu bar 1111A as shown in FIG. 11C. The user may thenspecify additional search parameters by again using the “search by” pulldown menu 1112 or by typing text into the text entry field 1109. Forexample, from the state of the window 1101 shown in FIG. 11C, the usermay select the “search by” pull down menu 1112 causing the display of amenu containing a plurality of options, such as the options shown withinthe menu 1113 or alternative options such as those which relate toPhotoShop documents (e.g. the various fields in the metadata forPhotoShop type of documents). A combination of such fields containedwithin metadata for PhotoShop type documents and other generic fields(e.g. time, file size, and other parameters) may appear in a menu, suchas the menu 1113 which is activated by selecting the “search by” pulldown menu. The user may then select another criteria such as the timecriteria. In this case, the window 1101 displays a new search parametermenu bar 1115 which allows a user to specify a particular time. The usermay select one of the times on the menu bar 1115 or may activate a pulldown menu by selecting the menu title “time,” which is shown as the menutitle 1116. The state of the window 1101 shown in FIG. 11D would thensearch for all PhotoShop documents created in the last 30 days or 7 daysor 2 days or today or at any time, depending on the particular timeperiod selected by the user.

FIGS. 12A, 12B, 12C and 12D show another example of a user interface forallowing the creation of search queries for searching metadata and otherdata and for displaying the results of the search performed using asearch query. The different implementation shown in FIGS. 12A-12D showsa user interface presentation in a column mode; this can be seen bynoting the selection of the column button, which is the rightmost buttonin the view buttons 1237 shown in FIG. 12A. The window 1201 has twocolumns 1211 and the display region 1205, while the window 1251 of FIG.12C has three columns which are columns 1257, 1259, and the displayregion 1255, and the window 1271 has three columns which are columns1277, 1279, and the display region 1275.

The window 1201 shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B includes a display region1205 which shows the results of a search; these results may be showndynamically as the user enters search parameters or the results may beshown only after the user has instructed the system to perform thesearch (e.g. by selecting a “perform search” command). The window 1201includes conventional window controls, such as a resizing control 1231,a scrolling control 1221, a title bar 1229 which may be used to move thewindow, a window close button, a window minimize button, and a windowresize button 1234, 1235, and 1236, respectively. The window 1201 alsoincludes a user-configurable side bar region 1203A and a systemspecified side bar region 1203B. It can be seen from FIG. 12A that abrowse mode has been selected as indicated by the highlighted “browse”icon 1203C in the system specified side bar region 1203B. The window1201 also includes a text entry region 1209, which a user may use toenter text for a search, and the window 1201 also includes view selectorbuttons 1237.

A column 1211 of window 1201 allows a user to select various searchparameters by selecting one of the options which in turn causes thedisplay of a submenu that corresponds to the selected option. In thecase of FIG. 12A, the user has selected the “kind” option 1212 and thenhas used the submenu 1214 to select the “photos” option from thesubmenu, resulting in an indicator 1213 (photos) to appear in the column1211 under the “kind” option as shown in FIG. 12A. It can also be seenthat the user has previously selected the “time” option in the column1211 and has selected from a submenu brought up when the “time” optionwas selected the “past week” search parameter. When the user hasfinished making selections of the various options and suboptions fromboth the column 1112 and any of the corresponding submenus which appear,then the display showed in FIG. 12B appears. Note that the submenus areno longer present and that the user has completed the selection of thevarious options and suboptions which specify the search parameters.Column 1211 in FIG. 12B provides feedback to the user indicating theexact nature of the search query (in this case a search for all photosdated in the past week), and the results which match the search queryare shown in the display region 1205.

FIGS. 12C and 12D show an alternative embodiment in which the submenuswhich appear on a temporary basis in the embodiment of FIGS. 12A and 12Bare replaced by an additional column which does not disappear after aselection is made. In particular, the column 1259 of the window 1251functions in the same manner as the submenu 1214 except that it remainswithin the window 1251 after a selection is made (wherein the submenu1214 is removed from the window after the user makes the selection fromthe submenu). The column 1279 of window 1271 of FIG. 12D is similar tothe column 1259. The window 1251 includes a side bar which has auser-configurable side bar region 1253A and a system defined side barregion 1253B. The system specified side bar region 1253B includes a“browse” selection region 1254 which has a clear button 1258 which theuser may select to clear the current search query. The window 1271 ofFIG. 12D provides an alternative interface for clearing the searchquery. The window 1271 also includes a user configurable side bar region1273A and a system specified side bar region 1273B, but the clearbutton, rather than being with the “search” region 1274 is at the top ofthe column 1277. The user may clear the current search parameter byselecting the button 1283 as shown in FIG. 12D.

FIG. 13A shows another embodiment of a window 1301 which displays searchresults within a display region 1302. The window 1301 may be acloseable, minimizable, resizable, and moveable window having a resizingcontrol 1310, a title bar 1305 which may be used to move the window, atext entry region 1306 and a user configurable portion 1303, and asystem specified portion 1304. The window 1301 further includes buttonsfor selecting various views, including an icon view, a list view, and acolumn view. Currently, the list view button 1316 has been selected,causing the display of the search results in a list view manner withinthe display region 1302. It can be seen that the text (“button”) hasbeen entered into the text entry region 1306 and this has caused thesystem to respond with the search results shown in the display region1302. The user has specified a search in every location by selecting“everywhere” button 1317. Further, the user has searched for any kind ofdocument by selecting the “kind” option from the pull down menu 1315 andby selecting the “any” option in the pull down menu 1319. The where orlocation slice 1307 includes a “+” button which may be used to addfurther search parameters, and similarly, the slice 1308 includes a “+”and a “−” button for adding or deleting search parameters, respectively.The slice 1307 further includes a “save” button 1309 which causes thecurrent search query to be saved in the form of a folder which is addedto the user configurable portion 1303 for use later. This is describedfurther below and may be referred to as a “smart folder.” The searchinput user interface shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B is available within, incertain embodiments, each and every window controlled by a graphicaluser interface file management system, such as a Finder program whichruns on the Macintosh or Windows Explorer which runs on MicrosoftWindows. This interface includes the text entry region 1306 as well asthe slices 1307 and 1308.

The window 1301 shown in FIG. 13B shows the activation of a menu byselecting the search button 1323A, causing a display of a menu havingtwo entries 1323 and 1325. Entry 1323 displays recently performedsearches so that a user may merely recall a prior search by selectingthe prior search and cause the prior search to be run again. The menuselection 1325 allows the user to clear the list of recent searches inthe menu.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C show examples of another window in a graphicaluser interface file system, such as the Finder which runs on theMacintosh operating system. These windows show the results of aparticular search and also the ability to save and use a smart folderwhich saves a prior search. The window 1401 shown in FIG. 14A includes adisplay region 1403, a user configurable region 1405, a smart folder1406, a system specified region 1407, an icon view button 1409, a listview button 1410, and a column view button 1411. The window 1401 alsoincludes a text entry region 1415 and a location slice 1416 which may beused to specify the location for the search, which slice also includes asave button 1417. Additional slices below the slice 1416 allow the userto specify further details with respect to the search, in this casespecifying types of documents which are images which were last viewedthis week. The user has set the search parameters in this manner byselecting the “kind” option from the pull down menu 1419 and byselecting the “images” type from the pull down menu 1420 and byselecting the “last viewed” option from pull down menu 1418 and byselecting “this week” from the pull down menu 1422. The user has alsoselected “everywhere” by selecting the button 1421 so that the searchwill be performed on all disks and storage devices connected to thissystem. The results are shown within the display region 1403. The usercan then save the search query by selecting the “save” button 1417 andmay name the saved search query as “this week's images” to produce thesmart folder 1406 as shown in the user configurable portion 1405. Thisallows the user to repeat this search at a later time by merelyselecting the smart folder 1406 which causes the system to perform a newsearch again, and all data which matches the search criteria will bedisplayed within the display region 1403. Thus, after several weeks, arepeating of this search by selecting the smart folder 1406 will producean entirely different list if none of the files displayed in the displayregion 1403 of FIG. 14A are viewed in the last week from the time inwhich the next search is performed by selecting the smart folder 1406.

FIG. 14B shows a way in which a user may sort or further search withinthe search results specified by a saved search, such as a smart folder.In the case of FIG. 14B, the user has selected the smart folder 1406 andhas then entered text “jpg” 1425 in the text entry region 1415. This hascaused the system to filter or further limit the search results obtainedfrom the search query saved as the smart folder 1406. Thus, PhotoShopfiles and other files such as TIF files and GIF files are excluded fromthe search results displayed within the display region 1403 of FIG. 14Bbecause the user has excluded those files by adding an additional searchcriteria specified by the text 1425 in the text entry region 1415. Itcan be seen that the “jpg” text entry is ANDed logically with the othersearch parameters to achieve the search results displayed in the displayregion 1403. It can also be seen that the user has selected the iconview by selecting the icon view button 1409. Thus, it is possible for auser to save a search query and use it later and to further limit theresults of the search query by performing a search on the results of thesearch query to further limit the search results.

FIG. 14C shows the window 1401 and shows the search results displayedwithin the display region 1403, where the results are based upon thesaved search specified by the smart folder 1406. The user has caused apull down menu 1427 to appear by selecting the pull down region 1427A.The pull down region 1427 includes several options, which a user mayselect. These options include hiding the search criteria or saving thesearch (which is similar to selecting the button 1417) or showing viewoptions or opening the selected file. This allows the user, for example,to hide the search criteria, thereby causing the slice 1416 and theother search parameters to be removed from the window 1401 which is amoveable, resizable, minimizable, and closeable window.

FIG. 14D shows an example of a user interface which allows the user tospecify the appearance of a smart folder, such as the smart folder 1406.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, and 15D show an example of a system wide searchinput user interface and search result user interface. In one particularexemplary embodiment, these user interfaces are available on the entiresystem for all applications which run on the system and all files andmetadata, and even address book entries within an address book program,such as a personal information manager, and calendar entries within acalendar program, and emails within an email program, etc. In oneexemplary embodiment, the system begins performing the search and beginsdisplaying the results of the search as the user types text into a textentry field, such as the text entry field 1507. The search results areorganized by categories and are displayed as a short list which isintentionally abbreviated in order to present only a selected number ofthe most relevant (scored) matches or hits to the search query. The usercan ask for the display of all the hits by selecting a command, such asthe “show all” command 1509. FIG. 15A shows a portion of a displaycontrolled by a data processing system. This portion includes a menu bar1502 which has at its far end a search menu command 1505. The user canselect the search menu command by positioning a cursor, using a mouse,for example, over the search menu command 1505 and by pressing a buttonor by otherwise activating or selecting a command. This causes a displayof a text entry region 1507 into which a user can enter text. In theexample shown in FIG. 15A, which is a portion of the display, the userhas entered the text “shakeit” causing the display of a search resultregion immediately below a “show all” command region 1509 which isitself immediately below the text entry region 1507. It can be seen thatthe hits or matches are grouped into categories (“documents” and “PDFdocuments”) shown by categories 1511 and 1513 within the search resultregion 1503. FIG. 15B shows another example of a search. In this case, alarge number of hits was obtained (392 hits), only a few of which areshown in the search result region 1503. Again, the hits are organized bycategories 1511 and 1513. Each category may be restricted in terms ofthe number of items displayed within the search result region 1503 inorder to permit the display of multiple categories at the same timewithin the search result region. For example, the number of hits in thedocuments category may greatly exceed the available display space withinthe search result region 1503, but the hits for this category arelimited to a predetermined or dynamically determinable number of entrieswithin the search result region 1503 for the category 1511. Anadditional category, “top hit” is selected based on a scoring orrelevancy using techniques which are known in the art. The user mayselect the “show all” command 1509 causing the display of a window, suchas window 1601 shown in FIG. 16A. FIG. 15C shows a display of agraphical user interface of one embodiment of the invention whichincludes the menu bar 1502 and the search menu command 1505 on the menubar 1502. FIG. 15D shows another example of the search result region1503 which appeared after a search of the term “safari” was entered intothe text entry region 1507. It can be seen from the search result region1503 of FIG. 15D that the search results are again grouped intocategories. Another search result window 1520 is also shown in the userinterface of FIG. 15D. It can be seen that application programs areretrieved as part of the search results, and a user may launch any oneof these application programs by selecting it from the search resultregion, thereby causing the program to be launched.

FIGS. 16A and 16B show examples of search result windows which may becaused to appear by selecting the “show all” command 1509 in FIG. 15A or15B. Alternatively, these windows may appear as a result of the userhaving selected a “find” command or a some other command indicating thata search is desired. Moreover, the window 1601 shown in FIGS. 16A and16B may appear in response to either of the selection of a show allcommand or the selection of a find command. The window 1601 includes atext entry region 1603, a group by menu selection region 1605, a sort bymenu selection region 1607, and a where menu selection region 1609. Thegroup by selection region 1605 allows a user to specify the manner inwhich the items in the search results are grouped according to. In theexample shown in FIG. 16A, the user has selected the “kind” option fromthe group by menu selection region 1605, causing the search results tobe grouped or sorted according to the kind or type of document or file.It can be seen that the type of file includes “html” files, image files,PDF files, source code files, and other types of files as shown in FIG.16A. Each type or kind of document is separated from the other documentsby being grouped within a section and separated by headers from theother sections. Thus, headers 1611, 1613, 1615, 1617, 1619, 1621, and1623 designate each of the groups and separate one group from the othergroups. This allows a user to focus on evaluating the search resultsaccording to certain types of documents. Within each group, such as thedocument groups or the folder groups, the user has specified that theitems are to be sorted by date, because the user has selected the dateoption within the sort by menu region 1607. The user has also specifiedthat all storage locations are to be searched by selecting “everywhere”from the where menu selection region 1609. Each item in the searchresult list includes an information button 1627 which may be selected toproduce the display of additional information which may be availablefrom the system. An example of such additional information is shown inFIG. 17 in which a user has selected the information button 1627 foritem 1635, resulting in the display of an image 1636 corresponding tothe item as well as additional information 1637. Similarly, the user hasselected the information button for another item 1630 to produce thedisplay of an image of the item 1631 as well as additional information1632. The user may remove this additional information from the displayby selecting the close button 1628 which causes the display of theinformation for item 1635 to revert to the appearance for that itemshown in FIG. 16A. The user may collapse an entire group to hide theentries or search results from that group by selecting the collapsebutton 1614 shown in FIG. 16A, thereby causing the disappearance of theentries in this group as shown in FIG. 16B. The user may cause theseitems to reappear by selecting the expand button 1614A as shown in FIG.16B to thereby revert to the display of the items as shown in FIG. 16A.

The search results user interface shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B presentsonly a limited number of matches or hits within each category. In theparticular example of these figures, only the five top (most relevant ormost highly sorted) hits are displayed. This can be seen by noticing theentry at the bottom of each list within a group which specifies how manymore hits are within that group; these hits can be examined by selectingthis indicator, such as indicator 1612, which causes the display of allof the items in the documents category or kind for the search for“button” which was entered into the text entry region 1603. Furtherexamples of this behavior are described below and are shown inconjunction with FIGS. 18A and 18B. It will be appreciated that window1601 is a closeable and resizable and moveable window and includes aclose button and a resizing control 1625A.

FIGS. 18A and 18B illustrate another window 1801 which is very similarto the window 1601. The window 1801 includes a text entry region 1803, agroup by menu selection region 1805, a sort by menu selection region1807, and a where menu selection region 1809, each of which function ina manner which is similar to the regions 1605, 1607, and 1609respectively of FIG. 16A. Each item in a list view within the window1801 includes an information button 1827, allowing a user to obtainadditional information beyond that listed for each item shown in thewindow 1801. The window 1801 further includes headers 1811, 1813, 1815,1817, 1819, 1821, and 1823 which separate each group of items, groupedby the type or kind of document, and sorted within each group by date,from the other groups. A collapse button 1814 is available for each ofthe headers. The embodiment shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B shows the abilityto switch between several modes of viewing the information. For example,the user may display all of the hits within a particular group byselecting the indicator 1812 shown in FIG. 18A which results in thedisplay of all of the images files within the window 1801 within theregion 1818A. The window is scrollable, thereby allowing the user toscroll through all the images. The user can revert back to the listingof only five of the most relevant images by selecting the “show top 5”button 1832 shown in FIG. 18B. Further, the user can select between alist view or an icon view for the images portion shown in FIGS. 18A and18B. The user may select the list view by selecting the list view button1830 or may select the icon view by selecting the icon view button 1831.The list view for the images group is shown in FIG. 16A and the iconview for the images group is shown in FIGS. 18A and 18B. It can be seenthat within a single, moveable, resizable, closeable search resultwindow, that there are two different views (e.g. a list view and an iconview) which are concurrently shown within the window. For example, thePDF documents under the header 1819 are displayed in a list view whilethe images under the header 1817 are displayed in an icon view in FIGS.18A and 18B. It can also be seen from FIGS. 18A and 18B that each imageis shown with a preview which may be capable of live resizing asdescribed in a patent application entitled “Live Content Resizing” byinventors Steve Jobs, Steve Lemay, Jessica Kahn, Sarah Wilkin, DavidHyatt, Jens Alfke, Wayne Loofbourrow, and Bertrand Serlet, filed on Jun.25, 2004, and being assigned to the assignee of the present inventionsdescribed herein, and which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 19A shows another example of a search result window which issimilar to the window 1601. The window 1901 shown in FIG. 19A includes atext entry region 1903 and a group by menu selection region 1905 and asort by menu selection region 1907 and a where menu selection region1908. Further, the window includes a close button 1925 and a resizingcontrol 1925A. Text has been entered into the text entry region 1903 toproduce the search results shown in the window 1901. The search resultsagain are grouped by a category selected by a user which in this case isthe people options 1906. This causes the headers 1911, 1913, 1915, and1917 to show the separation of the groups according to names of people.Within each group, the user has selected to sort by the date of theparticular file or document. The user interface shown in FIG. 19A allowsa user to specify an individual's name and to group by people to lookfor communications between two people, for example. FIG. 19B showsanother way in which a user can group a text search (“imran”) in amanner which is different from that shown in FIG. 19A. In the case ofFIG. 19B, the user has selected a flat list from the group by menuselection region 1905 and has selected “people” from the sort by menuregion 1907. The resulting display in window 1901A is without headersand thus it appears as a flat list.

FIG. 19C shows the user interface of another search result window 1930which includes a text entry region 1903 and the selection regions 1905,1907, and 1908 along with a scrolling control 1926. The results shown inthe window 1930 have been grouped by date and sorted within each groupby date. Thus, the headers 1932, 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1940 specify timeperiods such as when the document was last modified (e.g. last modifiedtoday, or yesterday, or last week). Also shown within the search resultswindow 1930 is the information button 1942 which may be selected toreveal further information, such as an icon 1945 and additionalinformation 1946 as shown for one entry under the today group. Thisadditional information may be removed by selecting the contractionbutton 1944.

FIG. 19D shows a search result window 1950 in which a search for thetext string “te” is grouped by date but the search was limited to a“home” folder as specified in the where menu selection region 1908. Timespecific headers 1952, 1954, 1956, and 1958 separate items within onegroup from the other groups as shown in FIG. 19D.

FIG. 19E shows an alternative embodiment of a search result window. Inthis embodiment, the window 1970 includes elements which are similar towindow 1901 such as the selection regions 1905, 1907, and a scrollingcontrol 1926 as well as a close button 1925 and a resizing control1925A. The search result window 1970 further includes a “when” menuselection region 1972 which allows the user to specify a searchparameter based on time in addition to the text entered into the textentry region 1903. It can be seen from the example shown in FIG. 19Ethat the user has decided to group the search results by the categoryand to sort within each group by date. This results in the headers 1973,1975, 1977, and 1979 as shown in FIG. 19E.

FIG. 20 shows an exemplary method of operating a system wide menu forinputting search queries, such as the system wide menu available byselecting the search menu command 1505 shown in FIG. 15A or 15B, or 15C.In operation 2001, the system displays a system wide menu for inputtingsearch queries. This may be the search menu command 1505. The user, inoperation 2003, inputs a search, and as the search query is beinginputted, the system begins performing and begins displaying the searchresults before the user finishes inputting the search query. This givesimmediate feedback and input to the user as the user enters thisinformation. The system is, in operation 2005, performing a searchthrough files, metadata for the files, emails within an email program,address book entries within an address book program, calendar entrieswithin a calendar program, etc. The system then, in operation 2007,displays an abbreviated (e.g. incomplete) list of hits if there are morethan a certain number of hits. An example of this abbreviated listing isshown in FIG. 15B. The listing may be sorted by relevance and segregatedinto groups such as categories or types of documents. Then in operation2009, the system receives a command from the user to display all thehits and in operation 2011 the system displays the search resultswindow, such as the window 1601 shown in FIG. 16A. This window may havethe ability to display two different types of views, such as an iconview and a list view within the same closeable, resizable, and moveablewindow. It will be appreciated that the searching, which is performed asthe user is typing and the displaying of results as the user is typingmay include the searching through the metadata files created frommetadata extracted from files created by many different types ofsoftware programs.

Another aspect of the present inventions relates to previews, displayedwithin search results windows, icons, dynamic icons, etc., where some orall of which are at least one of being resizable, zoomable, or pageablethrough. For example, a first representation (e.g., an icon, a dynamicicon, etc.) of a first file found by the search may contain a previewthat is at least one of being resizable or zoomable or scrollable orpageable through within a display region, such as a window, whichcontains the results of the search. FIG. 21 shows an exemplary methodfor performing at least some of the functionality of this aspect. Inoperation 2901, a user's search input is received by a data processingsystem which, in turn, in operation 2903, performs the search and thenpresents the search results based on the user's search input. Inaddition, the results are presented such that, for at least one filewhich was found by the search, the file is represented by an icon, adynamic icon having a preview, or other representation of the file,where the preview or the representation is at least one of resizable orzoomable or scrollable or pageable through or a combination of thosecapabilities. For example, if the file which is found is a picture file,then a thumbnail of the picture file may be the representation which isresizable within the search results window, such that it can be enlargedin size or decreased in size on the display device within the searchresults window. Further, the picture, which is a thumbnail whichrepresents the file, may be zoomable in that the content of therepresentation may be zoomed in (e.g. magnified) or out (e.g.demagnified) while maintaining the same area or size of therepresentation. In addition or alternatively, the content in therepresentation may be pageable in that multiple different pages of thecontent may be displayed either sequentially over time by paging throughthe multiple pages in sequence, as if one were flipping through pages ina book, or multiple pages may be spread out concurrently. One or more ofthese actions may be possible, depending upon the particular type ofcontent. Images may typically be resizable or zoomable or scrollable andmay also be pageable, for example. In at least certain embodiments ofthe present invention, as shown in operation 2907, the representationwithin the search results window may be resized or scrolled or zoomed orpaged through without having to launch the application which created thecontent.

A preview, at least in certain embodiments, can apply to files (e.g.,documents, still images, video, etc.) or other objects (e.g. records,emails, messages, vCards, etc.). A single page preview can be used for athumbnail or in any situation where a single image is needed to providea preview of an item. Multiple items can be previewed at once andcompared, or viewed in sequence. When multiple items are previewed atonce, they can be of any file type including many different file types.The previews can be shown in the same window as the search resultswindow or in a separate window or in a layer that is overlaid above theitem, shown in a search result, which is being previewed in the layerabove. Alternatively, the previews of contents of files may be presentedwithin icons and/or dynamic icons representing the files, where theicons and/or dynamic icons may be displayed in a window, such as thesearch result window.

A preview may be presented using a variety of different implementations,such as a plug-in implementation which uses one or more plug-ins, suchas a QuickTime plug-in, etc. Each of the previews may be formatted inone of several standard data/file types (such as PDF, text, HTML, JPEG,a movie format, or a sound/music format, etc.). The previews may beeither generated by the application, which created the item or filerepresented by the preview, when the item or file is stored or may begenerated dynamically when needed. A dynamically generated preview maybe produced by invoking a generator plug-in that translates the nativeformat of the item being previewed to one of the “standard” data/filetypes (e.g. PDF, text, HTML, JPEG, a standard movie format, or astandard sound/music format, etc.). A preview generator plug-in may beloaded in a separate process to protect against failures and/or securityvulnerabilities. Alternatively, a trusted generator plug-in (e.g.,QuickTime), or a set of such plug-ins may be loaded directly in theprocess of presenting the search results and such plug-ins may be usedto present the previews. A preview generator may be capable of handlingmultiple preview requests concurrently and the preview generator and/orthe search software controlling the search results window may manage aqueue of preview requests, and the search software can cancel or reorderthe preview requests in the queue.

The following figures show examples of previews or other representationswhich are resizable or zoomable or scrollable or pageable through. FIG.22A shows an example of a preview 3001 displayed on a display device,either within a search result window or as an overlay on the window. Thepreview 3001 is scrollable and resizable; it may be scrolled using anyone of the scroll controls 3002, 3003 and/or 3004. It may be resizedusing the resize control 3005. FIG. 22B shows a preview 3010 which candisplay multiple documents or items in a scrollable format. The viewshown in FIG. 22B of the preview 3010 shows only one document andanother document can be selected for viewing using interface controls3015, 3013, and 3017. The view of preview 3010 is scrollable usingscroll controls 3011, 3012A and/or 3012B. The view of preview 3010 isalso resizable using resize control 3005. The user can also switch todisplay multiple documents or items at once in the view of preview 3010by selecting the user interface control 3019 which will cause thepreview shown in FIG. 22B to appear similar to the preview shown in FIG.22C which shows multiple documents concurrently. The preview shown inFIG. 22C may also be scrollable.

Previews or other representations which are resizable or scrollable orzoomable or pageable through may also be provided in other userinterfaces which may include alternative types of views, such as withina dynamic icon, which is further described below. FIG. 23 provides anexample of one method of generating dynamic icons having previews withinthe dynamic icons. The method may begin in block 210 in which an icon ofa file is generated to represent the file in a graphical user interface(GUI). In block 213, one or more predefined decorations are put onto theicon based on the file type of the file. For example, a foldover may beput at the top right corner of the icon for documents. In block 215, apreview of the content of the file is presented within the icon withoutmodifying the format of the icon. For example, the shape and size of theicon, as well as decorations on the icon, remain the same as the previewof the content of the file is presented within the icon. Unlike someexisting user interface, no new window is generated to present thepreview. In some embodiments, an initial view of the preview may includean image of a predetermined portion of the file, such as the first pageof a document, a thumbnail of an image, a pre-selected scene in a video,etc. The initial view of the preview may also be referred to as theinitial preview.

In some embodiments, the preview within the icon is interactive suchthat presentation of the preview may change in response to user input.Various user interface control are provided based on the file type toallow users to manipulate presentation of the preview in block 217. Inone example, where the file is a document, a left arrow button and aright arrow button may be provided to allow users to page through thedocument, as if one were flipping through pages in a book sequentially.In another example, where the file is a video, a play button may beprovided to allow users to initiate playing of a preview of the video.Furthermore, a stop button may be provided to allow users to stopplaying the preview of the video. In another example, where the file isan image, a zoom button may be provided to allow users to zoom in and/orzoom out of a thumbnail of the image presented in the icon. Whilepresenting the preview in response to actuation of the user interfacecontrol, the format of the icon (e.g., size of icon, shape of icon,color of icon, etc.) is maintained at block 219. Furthermore, some orall of the decorations on the icon may be maintained during presentationof the preview. For example, a foldover at the top right corner of anicon of a document is maintained while users page through a preview ofthe document within the icon until reaching the last page of thedocument. When the last page of the document is presented, the foldovermay be removed to indicate that the last page of the document is beingpresented. Alternatively, a status indicator is provided to inform usersof the status of the presentation of the preview. For instance, a statusbar or a status ring may be provided to indicate the portion of apreview of a video that has been played. Details of some examples ofdynamic icons are shown in FIGS. 26A-26D and 27A-27E below.

In some embodiments, the dynamic icons created according to the methoddescribed above are displayed in GUIs associated with hierarchical filesystem (HFS) management application, such as the Finder program fromApple, Inc., of Cupertino, Calif., which operates on the Macintoshoperating system. In alternate embodiments, the HFS managementapplication may be Windows Explorer, which operates on Microsoft'sWindows operating system. For example, a GUI associated with a HFSmanagement application may include a window displaying dynamic icons torepresent files inside a directory. Users of the GUI may readily previewthe content of a file within a respective dynamic icon without openinganother window or viewing panel. Alternatively, the dynamic icons aredisplayed in GUIs associated with a file searching application, such asthe Spotlight program from Apple, Inc., of Cupertino, Calif. Forexample, files resulted from a search by the file searching applicationmay be represented by dynamic icons displayed in a search result window.As such, users of the file searching application may readily preview thecontent of the files inside their respective dynamic icons withoutopening another window or viewing panel within the same window.

In some embodiments, the preview is provided in the metadata of thefile. As mentioned above, the metadata of the file may include a fieldwhich includes an indicator of whether a preview of the content of thefile is available. Furthermore, the field may include an indicator ofwhether the preview, if available, is interactive. If an interactivepreview of the content of the file is available according to theseindicators, a client application may turn a thumbnail into a livepreview of the content. FIG. 24 illustrates one embodiment of a calldiagram to change a thumbnail of a file to live preview. Specifically,FIG. 24 illustrates the interaction between a client application 2401(on the left of FIG. 24), a daemon 2403 (in the middle of FIG. 24), anda plug-in 2405 (on the right of FIG. 24). Some examples of the clientapplication 2401 include a HFS management application and a filesearching application. The daemon 2403 may include a GUI creatingdaemon, such as Quick Look daemon, which operates on the Macintoshoperating system. The plug-in 2405 is associated with an applicationthat has created the file (hereinafter referred to as “the creatorapplication”). Note that there may be multiple plug-ins available in theoperating system, each plug-in associated with a distinct applicationusable to create files (e.g., word processing application, video editingapplication, etc.).

Initially, the client application 2401 interrogates the daemon 2403,which is a process running in the background, for icon data of an iconrepresenting a file 2410. In response to the interrogation 2410, thedaemon 2403 sends a request for the icon data to the plug-in 2405. Inresponse to the request 2415, the plug-in 2405 returns the icon data2420 to the daemon 2403. The icon data includes decorations to be putonto the icon and image metadata indicative of whether a preview of thecontent of the file is available. The daemon 2403 then forwards the icondata 2425 to the client application 2401. Using the icon data, theclient application 2401 may generate the decorations to put onto theicon and determine if a preview of the content of the file is available.If the preview is available, the client application 2401 may present thepreview in the icon and provide appropriate user interface control toallow users to manipulate the preview. As such, the thumbnail of thefile may be turned into a dynamic icon if the metadata of the fileindicates that the preview is available. Details of some embodiments ofgenerating dynamic icons have been described above with reference toFIG. 23.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of a method of changingthumbnail to live preview. The method may begin in block 2510 in whichicon data of a file is received from a background process, such as thedaemon 2403 in FIG. 24. The icon data includes metadata of the file. Inblock 2520, the icon data is analyzed to determine if a preview of thecontent of the file is available. For example, the metadata may includea preview flag, which may be set to indicate that a preview of thecontent of the file is available. If a preview is not availableaccording to the metadata, then an icon without a preview is generatedin block 2529. The icon generated may still include decorations asspecified by the icon data. Otherwise, if a preview is availableaccording to the metadata, then an icon usable to present the previewwithin the icon is generated in block 2523. The icon generated mayfurther include decorations as specified by the icon data. In block2525, a preview of the content of the file is presented within the iconwhile maintaining the decorations on the icon. Furthermore, the formatof the icon may not be modified.

In some embodiments, the preview presented within the icon includes aninteractive preview. Various user interface control may be provided toallow users to manipulate presentation of the preview. The icongenerated is displayed on a GUI associated with a client application(such as the client application 2401 in FIG. 24). The user interfacecontrol may be displayed within the icon and/or outside of the icon onthe GUI. In one example, where the file is a document, a left arrow anda right arrow may be provided to allow users to page through thedocument. Alternatively, a scroll bar may be provided to allow users toscroll up and down the document. In another example, where the file is avideo, a play button may be provided to allow users to initiate playinga preview of the video (which may include all or part of the video)within the icon. Furthermore, a stop button may be provided to allowusers to stop playing the video. In another example, where the file isan image, a preview of the image may include a thumbnail of the image,and a zoom button may be provided to allow users to zoom in and zoom outof the thumbnail of the image.

User Interface Aspects of Dynamic Icons

Various different examples of dynamic icons discussed above are providedherein. It will be understood that some features from certainembodiments may be mixed with other embodiments such that hybridembodiments may result from these combinations. It will be appreciatedthat certain features may be removed from each of these embodiments andstill provide adequate functionality in many instances.

FIGS. 26A-26D show one embodiment of a dynamic icon, which may bedisplayed on a GUI associated with a client application (e.g., a filemanagement application, a file searching application, etc.) beingexecuted in a data processing system (e.g., a computer system, etc.).The dynamic icon 2600 in FIGS. 26A-26D represents a document entitled“Hawaii Travel.” Decorations on the icon 2600 include a foldover 2612 atthe top right corner of the dynamic icon 2600 and a spiral book spine2614 at the left side of the dynamic icon 2600. Referring to FIG. 26A,the dynamic icon 2600 initially displays a first page 2616 of thedocument. Thus, this preview of the first page 2616 of the document mayalso be referred to as the initial preview of the document.

Upon detection of a cursor 2620 moving across the dynamic icon 2600, aleft arrow 2622 and a right arrow 2624 are generated and displayed onthe dynamic icon 2600 as shown in FIG. 26B. The cursor 2620 may be movedacross the dynamic icon 2600 in response to actuation of a user inputdevice, such as a mouse, a joystick, arrow buttons in a keyboard, etc.Because the icon 2600 is currently displaying the first page 2616 of thedocument, the right arrow 2624 is activated, but not the left arrow2622. In response to the cursor 2620 actuating the right button 2624,the dynamic icon 2600 displays the second page 2630 of the documentinstead of the first page 2616 as shown in FIG. 26C. Furthermore, theleft arrow 2622 is activated to allow the user to turn back to the firstpage 2616 of the document if desired.

As shown in FIG. 26D, the user may turn to the next page, i.e., thethird page 2640, of the document by actuating the right arrow 2624again. Because the third page 2640 is the last page of the document, theright arrow 2624 is deactivated, while the left arrow 2622 remainsactivated. Thus, the user may turn back to the previous page (i.e., thesecond page 2630) by actuating the left arrow 2622. Furthermore, thefoldover 2612 is removed from the dynamic icon 2600 to indicate that thedynamic icon 2600 is displaying the last page 2640 of the document.However, the spiral book spine 2614 is maintained on the dynamic icon2600.

As shown in FIGS. 26A-26D, the user may readily page through thedocument within the dynamic icon 2600 without opening the document.Furthermore, the format of the dynamic icon 2600 remains unchangedthroughout the preview, and the decorations (such as the foldover 2612and the spiral book spine 2614) on the dynamic icon 2600 may bemaintained or removed to enhance the presentation of the preview inresponse to user input.

FIGS. 27A-27E show another embodiment of a dynamic icon, which may beused with certain embodiments of the present invention. The dynamic icon2700 represents a video entitled “Fun and Games.mov.” Thus, the dynamicicon 2700 has the shape of a filmstrip and is decorated with a filmstripframe 2710. Initially, the dynamic icon 2700 displays a pre-selectedscene 2715 of the video as shown in FIG. 27A. The scene 2715 may bespecified by the metadata of the video. This preview of the pre-selectedscene 2715 may also be referred to as the initial preview of the video.

Upon detection of a cursor 2720 moving across the dynamic icon 2700, aplay button 2725 is generated and displayed within the dynamic icon 2700as shown in FIG. 27B. A user may actuate the play button 2725 toinitiate playing of a preview of the video within the dynamic icon 2700.The preview of the video may include all or part of the video. While thevideo is playing, a stop button 2730 may be generated and displayedwithin the dynamic icon 2700 as shown in FIG. 27C. The user may actuatethe stop button 2730 to stop playing the preview within the dynamic icon2700. Thus, the user may manipulate or control the presentation of thepreview of the video using the play button 2725 and the stop button2730.

In some embodiments, the dynamic icon 2700 may further provide a statusindicator 2735 as shown in FIGS. 27C-27E. In the current example, thestatus indicator 2735 is a ring enclosing the stop button 2730 toindicate the portion of the video that has been played in the preview.Specifically, the portion of the video played is represented by theshaded portion of the ring 2735. As the preview of the video is beingplayed, the portion of the shading in the ring 2735 extends in clockwisedirection as shown in FIGS. 27C-27E. When the entire preview has beenplayed, the entire ring 2735 may be shaded.

Icon Badging

Another aspect of the present inventions relates to icon badging. Badgesassociated with icons allow third parties that provide creatorapplications of files to provide more information, in addition to filetypes, to icon generating software. For example, third parties mayindicate in badge data which version of creator applications are used tocreate the files, and hence, the icon generating software may generateand display an appropriate badge on icons representing the files. FIG.28 shows one embodiment of a method to badge icons. In block 2810, anapplication receives icon data of a file from a plug-in associated witha creator application of the file. The application may include a userinterface generator (e.g., Quick Look application from Apple, Inc., ofCupertino, Calif.) to generate a user interface for displaying icons offiles for another application, such as Finder application from Apple,Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., Spotlight application from Apple, Inc.,Window Explorer program from Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., etc. Theicon data includes file type information, badge data of the file, and animage associated with the file (e.g., a thumbnail, a pre-selected sceneof a video, a pre-selected page of a document, etc.). The icon data maybe provided as part of the metadata of the file.

In block 2812, decorations for the icon are selected based on the filetype. This may also be referred to as type conformance. For example, ifa file is recognized as a presentation (e.g., Powerpoint files fromMicrosoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., Keynote files from Apple, Inc. ofCupertino, Calif., etc.) according to the file type information, then aslide decoration is provided to the icon of the file. In anotherexample, if a file is recognized as a document (e.g., MSWord files fromMicrosoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., Pages files from Apple, Inc. ofCupertino, Calif., etc.) according to the file type information, then abinder decoration is provided to the icon of the file.

In addition to the file type, the badge data in the icon data providesmore information on the file, the creator application, and/or a thirdparty vendor providing the creator application. Via badge data, thethird party vendor may provide more hints on the file in addition to thefile type. For example, the badge data may indicate the identity of thethird party vendor, a version of the creator application, etc. Using thebadge data, a badge is generated in block 2814. The badge may includegraphics, text, or a combination of both, to represent the third party,the creator application, and/or other hints provided in the badge data.A badge that includes only graphics is referred to as an image badge. Abadge that includes only text is referred to as a text badge.

In block 2816, an icon of the file is generated. Then the image, thebadge, and the decorations selected above are displayed on the icon. Viathe image, the icon may provide users with an initial preview of thefile. Via the decorations, the icon may indicate the file type to users.Via the badge, the icon may convey additional hints about the file tousers. Note that all of the above information on the file may beconveyed to users by a display of the icon without user intervention.Users do not have to request the above information and there is no needto open another window or viewing panel to display the aboveinformation.

Using badges, the third party vendor may ensure icons of files createdby its applications are badged in similar way. Thus, badges allow thethird party vendor to provide a substantially uniform look and feel foricons of files created by the third party's applications.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a foldercontaining only files created by applications from a single third partymay be badged as well. As such, users may easily determine the contentof the folder without opening the folder. FIG. 29 shows one embodimentof a method to badge a folder. The method may begin in block 2900 inwhich an icon representing a folder is created. In block 2910, it isdetermined if all files within the folder are created by applicationsfrom the same third party vendor, such as Apple, Inc. of Cupertino,Calif., Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., etc. If not all files withinthe folder are created by applications from the same vendor, then theicon of the folder is not badged. The icon of the folder is displayedwithout any badges in block 2919.

If all files within the folder are created by the same application orapplications from the same third party vendor, then the icon of thefolder is badged accordingly. In block 2913, a badge indicative of thevendor is created. The badge may include graphics, text, or acombination of both. For example, if all files within the folder arecreated by applications from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., then abadge including the graphic logo representing Apple, Inc. may becreated. In block 2915, the badge created is displayed on the icon ofthe folder. Decorations of the folder may also be displayed on the iconof the folder with the badge. Some exemplary embodiments of badged iconsare illustrated in FIGS. 30A and 30B.

Referring to FIG. 30A, one embodiment of an image badge on an exemplaryicon is shown. The icon 3050 represents a file created by Xcode fromApple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. An image badge 3056 having a graphicimage displaying the logo of Xcode 3058 is displayed on the icon 3050 toindicate to users that the creator application of the file representedby the icon 3050 is Xcode. The icon 3050 further includes an image 3054of a portion of the content of the file to provide a preview of thecontent to users. Alternatively, the icon 3050 may include aninteractive preview to allow users to page or scroll through the contentof the file. Details of some embodiments of interactive preview in iconshave been discussed above. Furthermore, a foldover 3052 is chosen as adecoration for the icon 3050 based on the file type. As shown in FIG.30A, the foldover 3052 is displayed at the top right corner of the icon3050. Other decorations may be chosen based on the file type inalternate embodiments.

FIG. 30B illustrates another embodiment of a text badge on the exemplaryicon. As mentioned above, the icon 3050 represents a file created byXcode from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. A text badge 3060 includingthe text “XCODE” is displayed at the bottom of the icon 3050. Thus,users may readily determine that the file represented by the icon iscreated by Xcode. The icon 3050 further includes an image 3054 of aportion of the content of the file to provide a preview of the contentto users. Alternatively, the icon 3050 may include an interactivepreview to allow users to page or scroll through the content of thefile. Details of some embodiments of interactive preview in icons havebeen discussed above. Furthermore, decorations, such as the foldover3052 at the top right corner of the icon 3050, are displayed on the icon3050 based on the file type.

FIG. 30C illustrates another embodiment of a text badge on an exemplaryfolder icon. The folder icon 3070 includes a decoration of a binderoutline 3074 and a text badge of Xcode. In the current example, allfiles in the folder are created by Xcode, therefore, the text badge ofXcode 3072 is displayed on the folder icon 3070 to indicate so.

System Architecture

As described above, these previews or thumbnails may be shown by a setof software routines such as a set of plug-ins, which are separate froma file management software program, such as Finder or Windows Explorer.This separation between the plug-ins which renders the content andFinder or other file management software provides security and stabilitybecause, for example, if the plug-in crashes, Finder may not. Theseplug-ins may be a standard set of plug-ins that translate the nativeformat of an item being previewed into one of a standard data/file type,such as PDF, text, HTML, JPG, a standard movie format or a standardsound/music format or into fully rendered content (e.g., a bitmap). Theset of plug-ins may be an extensible set of plug-ins and may interactwith the file management software, such as Finder or Windows Explorer,through a set of APIs in which the file management software makes a callto a plug-in management daemon which receives the call or API from thefile management software (or other software program) and which, in turn,asks for the file type (e.g., UTI) from a file system kernel and matchesone of the plug-ins in the standard set of plug-ins, which may beextensible, with the file type and which then calls the matched plug-into cause the plug-in to load and return the content of the file (eitherin an immediately displayable form or in a standard format) as a previewto the file management software which, in turn, causes the preview to bedisplayed in, for example, an icon representing the file and/or thecover flow view. This may occur in response to merely browsing the filesthrough the use of the file management software, such as Finder, orthrough the use of a search software program, such as Spotlight, to findfiles and then display previews or thumbnails of files retrieved by thesearch. As noted above, the preview or thumbnail may be generateddynamically upon request rather than when the item or file is stored orcreated by the application. This dynamic generation may be through anAPI. It will be understood that a dynamic generation of a preview orthumbnail may be provided without invoking or launching the applicationwhich created the file or document. Examples of software architecturesto dynamically generate previews are discussed in conjunction with FIG.31 below.

In addition to a file management software program or a search softwareprogram, such as Spotlight, other software application programs mayprovide or use application programming interfaces (API) to request thepreview generator or preview daemon to provide a preview or thumbnail ofthe content of a file within their windows. For example, an emailprogram or a calendar program or a video conferencing application or aninstant messaging application program or other application programs mayalso make a call to the preview generator or preview generator daemon toprovide the content of a particular file in the manner described herein.In response to the call through an API from the email program or thecalendar program or other program, the preview generator or previewgenerator daemon asks the file system for the file type and matches thefile type with a plug-in having an ability to process that file type andcauses that plug-in to be loaded (for example, by calling the plug-inthrough another optional API). The plug-in, in turn, processes thecontent of the file to generate the preview or thumbnail and providesthat content to the original application which requested the content,such as the email program or a calendar program or, as noted above, afile management software. A preview, such as an interactive preview in adynamic icon (e.g., the dynamic icons shown in FIGS. 26A-26D and FIGS.27A-27E) or thumbnail may be provided in an inline preview manner in aparticular view of a HFS management program, such as the cover flowview, a list view, such as the list view shown in FIG. 17 (whichincludes a preview or thumbnail view) or in a “get information” or“properties” panel or window or in other uses.

In some embodiments, an interactive preview may be presented through thefollowing set of software routines while also showing an initial set ofpreviews. For example, thumbnails of files may be the initial set ofpreviews shown in a particular view (e.g. list view, cover flow view,icon view), and the set of software routines provide an interactivepreview, within the same view, for at least one of these initialpreviews. The initial previews may also be provided by this set ofsoftware routines, but these initial previews may not be interactivewith the view; for example, they are not interactive within the view, inresponse to user commands so they will not, in response to usercommands, allow a user to page through or scroll through or browsethrough the content or to zoom or resize the content or playback thecontent, such as playback the movie. On the other hand, the interactivepreview is interactive in response to user commands in that it canrespond to a user command to page through or scroll through or browse orresize or zoom the document represented by the interactive preview orplayback the content, either within the particular view (e.g. a listview or cover flow view or icon view (see, e.g. FIGS. 26A-26D and27A-27E)) or zoom out from the particular view or be layered over theparticular view. Such user interface for showing both initial previewsand interactive previews may be used in a list view or icon view, suchas a list view or icon view of files or folders from a search result ora list view or icon view of files and folders from within a filemanagement software window (e.g. a Finder window).

FIG. 31 shows an example of software architecture 3001 which may be usedto dynamically generate previews, such as one or both of initialpreviews and interactive previews. This architecture may include one ormore APIs, such as API 3011 and optional API 3012 to act as an interfacebetween separate software programs. For example, API 3011 interfacesbetween a preview generator 3003, which may be a preview generatordaemon provided by an operating system software, and one or moreapplication programs 3007 (such as a file management software program ora search software program, etc.). The one or more application programs3007 make calls, through the API 3011, in order to have a previewgenerated for a file or other item in a particular view. The previewgenerator 3003 is configured to receive those calls to generate apreview of the content of the file. The preview of the content can begenerated by requesting a software routine (such as a first plug-in), ina set of software routines 3005, to generate either displayable contentor data in a standard format which can be converted by the applicationwhich made the call (or a helper application/plug-in or system resource)into displayable content. The first plug-in may be loaded and thenprocess the file (from the storage 3010 of files and data) to generatethe preview; the preview generator may determine the file type of thefile by making a call, to determine the file type, to the file systemsoftware 3009 which returns an identifier of the file type of the file,and then the preview generator 3003 may match the file type with themost appropriate routine in the set of routines before causing the mostappropriate routine to be loaded to generate the preview. Each softwareroutine may include data identifying the file types it can process, andthe preview generator matches the file type for the file, which was inthe call through API 3011, with the software routine, which can processthat file type, based on the data identifying the file types it canprocess.

In some embodiments, all modules in the above software architecture 3001are implemented and executed on a single individual computing machine,such as a personal computer. Alternatively, the above softwarearchitecture 3001 may be implemented in a distributed manner, such as ina client-server system. FIG. 32 illustrates one embodiment of a systemin which embodiments of the present invention may be implemented. Thesystem 3200 includes a server 3210 and a number of client machines 3220.The client machines 3220 are communicably coupled to the server 3210 viaa network 3230. A preview generator (such as the preview generator 3003in FIG. 31) is provided on the server 3210 for access by the clientmachines 3220. In some embodiments, multiple distinct instances of thepreview generator are provided for multiple distinct client machines. Inresponse to requests from the client machines 3220, each instance of thepreview generator may send a preview of the requested files from theserver 3210 to the respective client machines 3220. In some embodiments,icons representing the files are cached on the server 3210 for use bythe various instances of the preview generator. By providing the previewgenerator on the server 3210, it is not necessary for the clientmachines 3220 to have the relevant applications in order to present thepreview.

FIG. 33 illustrates one embodiment of a method for providing a previewgenerator on a server. One example of the preview generator is QuickLook application from Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. The method maybegin in block 3301 in which an instance of a preview generator isinstantiated on a server (such as the server 3210 in FIG. 32) for eachof a number of client machines (such as the client machines 3220 in FIG.32). In block 3303, the instance sends a preview of a file to arespective client machine responsive to a request from the respectiveclient machine. Depending on the file type, the preview may include athumbnail of an image, a portion of a document, a portion of a video,etc. In block 3305, a plug-in associated with a creator application ofthe file is executed to present the preview without launching thecreator application. In some embodiments, the preview is presentedwithin the icon while maintaining the format and decorations of theicon. Alternatively, a new window is opened and the preview is presentedin the new window. In block 3307, the icon of the file is cached on theserver so that the icon cached can be accessed by other instances of thepreview generator.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: inresponse to a request from a client application, a background processrequesting icon data of an icon from a plug-in, the icon representing afile, the icon is associated with a creator application and the plug-inis separate from the client application; the background processreceiving the icon data from the plug-in, the icon data including one ormore decorations of the icon and image metadata indicative of whether apreview of content of the file is available, wherein the backgroundprocess receives the icon data from the plug-in without launching thecreator application; and forwarding the icon data to the clientapplication, wherein the file is one of a plurality of data filescreated by different types of application programs and the clientapplication comprises a search application capable of searching ametadata database comprising metadata corresponding to the data filescreated by the different types of application programs using a singlesearch request.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the file includes adocument, and the preview comprises a pageable display of the documentwithin the icon.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the file includes avideo, and the preview comprises playing the video within the icon. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the file includes an image, and thepreview comprises a zoomable display of the image within the icon. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more decorations include afoldover at a corner of the icon.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theclient application includes a hierarchical file system (HFS) managementapplication.
 7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storingexecutable program instructions which when executed by a data processingsystem cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:in response to a request from a client application, a background processrequesting icon data of an icon from a plug-in, the icon representing afile, the icon is associated with a creator application and the plug-inis separate from the client application; the background processreceiving the icon data from the plug-in, the icon data including one ormore decorations of the icon and image metadata indicative of whether apreview of content of the file is available, wherein the backgroundprocess receives the icon data from the plug-in without launching thecreator application; and forwarding the icon data to the clientapplication, wherein the file is one of a plurality of data filescreated by different types of application programs and the clientapplication comprises a search application capable of searching metadatadatabase comprising metadata corresponding to the data files created bythe different types of application programs using a single searchrequest.
 8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the fileincludes a document, and the preview comprises a pageable display of thedocument within the icon.
 9. The computer readable medium of claim 7,wherein the file includes a video, and the preview comprises playing thevideo within the icon.
 10. The computer readable medium of claim 7,wherein the file includes an image, and the preview comprises a zoomabledisplay of the image within the icon.
 11. The computer readable mediumof claim 7, wherein the one or more decorations include a foldover at acorner of the icon.
 12. The computer readable medium of claim 7, whereinthe client application includes a hierarchical file system (HFS)management application.
 13. A computer apparatus comprising: means forrequesting icon data of an icon from a plug-in in response to a requestfrom a client application, the icon representing a file, the icon isassociated with a creator application and the plug-in is separate fromthe client application; means for receiving the icon data from theplug-in, the icon data including one or more decorations of the icon andimage metadata indicative of whether a preview of content of the file isavailable, wherein the background process receives the icon data fromthe plug-in without launching the creator application; and means forforwarding the icon data to the client application, wherein the file isone of a plurality of data files created by different types ofapplication programs and the client application comprises means forsearching a metadata database comprising metadata corresponding to thedata files created by the different types of application programs usinga single search request.
 14. A computer implemented method comprising:in response to a request from a user, interrogating a background processfor icon data of an icon, the icon representing a file; receiving, witha client application the icon data from the background process, the icondata including one or more decorations of the icon and metadata, whereinthe background process receives the icon data from a plug-in withoutlaunching a creator application, the icon associated with the creatorapplication, and the plug-in is separate from the client application;analyzing the metadata to determine if an interactive preview of contentof the file is available, generating the icon with the one or moredecorations in a graphical user interface (GUI) using the icon data;presenting the interactive preview of the content of the file within theicon if the image metadata indicates that the interactive preview isavailable; and searching a metadata database using a single searchrequest, wherein the file is one of a plurality of data files created bydifferent types of application programs and the metadata databasecomprises metadata corresponding to the data files created by thedifferent types of application programs.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the file includes a document, and the method further comprises:generating user interface control to allow users to page through thedocument.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the file includes a video,and the method further comprises: generating user interface control toplay the video; and playing the video within the decorated icon inresponse to a user actuating the user interface control.
 17. The methodof claim 14, wherein the GUI is associated with a hierarchical filesystem (HFS).
 18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storingexecutable program instructions which when executed by a data processingsystem cause the data processing system to perform a method comprising:in response to a request from a user, interrogating a background processfor icon data of an icon, the icon representing a file; receiving theicon data from the background process, the icon data including one ormore decorations of the icon and metadata, wherein the backgroundprocess receives the icon data from a plug-in without launching acreator application and the icon associated with the creatorapplication; analyzing the metadata to determine if an interactivepreview of content of the file is available, generating the icon withthe one or more decorations in a graphical user interface (G using theicon data; presenting the interactive preview of the content of the filewithin the icon if the image metadata indicates that the interactivepreview is available; and searching a metadata database using a singlesearch request, wherein the file is one of a plurality of data filescreated by different types of application programs and the metadatadatabase comprises metadata corresponding to the data files created bythe different types of application programs.
 19. The computer readablemedium of claim 18, wherein the file includes a document, and the methodfurther comprises: generating user interface control to allow users topage through the document.
 20. The computer readable medium a claim 18,wherein the file includes a video, and the method further comprises:generating user interface control to play the video; and playing thevideo within the decorated icon in response to a user actuating the userinterface control.
 21. The computer readable medium of claim 18, whereinthe GUI is associated with a hierarchical file system (HFS).